SPORTS MASSAGE
Massage is an important part of your fitness training, whether you are preparing for a marathon, keeping up your weekly gym routine, or just enjoying your favorite sport. Sports Massage focuses on those muscle groups you use most and is effective in improving flexibility and preventing injuries. Massage can also be effective in treating sports-related injuries.

By improving blood circulation, massage helps to more effectively carry nutrients to muscles as well as to remove waste. This keeps body organs as well as muscles healthy.

The Athlete’s Edge
All athletes look for an edge that can help them train more effectively, perform better or overcome injuries quickly. Over the long-term, Sports Massage helps athletes sustain higher levels of performance and remain free of injuries.

Sports Massage differs from Swedish Massage in that the goal is not only stress relief or relaxation, but also decreased muscle tension, pain relief, and injury treatment & prevention. In a typical Sports Massage session, the focus is on the specific muscle groups you use most. Deeper pressure is usually used, however open communication between the therapist and client ensures that the pressure is appropriate and effective.

Here’s how training and massage affect your body:
After hard training or an athletic event, muscles become constricted and shortened. Very small tears occur in muscle fibers which can lead to swelling and forming of adhesions. Without proper rest, stretching or massage, muscles can become increasingly fatigued, contracted and inflexible.

During massage, blood circulation is stimulated which more effectively brings nutrients to the muscle tissues and carries waste away. This helps muscles recover faster and more completely which boosts the healing process. Also, deep strokes used during Sports Massage stretch and broaden muscle tissue which improves flexibility.

Some techniques used during Sports Massage include:

Compression Massage

  • Rhythmic compression into muscles is used to increase blood flow to the area and soften the tissues. It is generally used as a warm-up for deeper, more specific massage work.

Cross-Fiber Massage

  • Helps create strong, flexible repair in muscle tissue during the healing process by using deep friction across the direction of muscle tissue. Can also be deep general pressure applied to large muscle groups to stretch and broaden.

Trigger Point/Tender Point Massage

  • Specific pressure into trigger/tender points in muscle and connective tissue to reduce tenderness, muscle spasms and referred pain patterns. Left untreated, such trigger/tender points often lead to restricted and painful movement of entire body regions.

Many exercise programs regard aches and pains as the inevitable price to be paid for being active. However, massage can be used to increase endurance, control fatigue, and stay healthy & motivated as part of your regular health program.