Sports Massage
The Use of Massage in Sport
Sports Massage is for people who are serious about Sports or Fitness and train hard to improve fitness, performance, endurance and speed.
If you are training at a high level of effort then in order for you to keep it up your body needs to be able to rest and recover properly from fatigue, which results from hard training. Sports Massage can aid your body in recovery so that you can continue without fear of injury and reach your optimal performance level.
Massage is the best form of treatment for muscle tension and it has the advantage over most other therapies that it can be used on a regular basis. Using massage on a regular basis will help prevent overuse injuries that can lead to further more acute injuries.
Effects of Sports Massage
- Friction of massage creates warming which is beneficial as it increases the pliability of the tissues and improves metabolism.
- Pumping the circulation increases the flow of fluid in the venous and lymphatic vessels and restores normal tissue condition,
- Massage techniques can achieve stretching of muscles and muscle fibres and moving muscle bundles apart (different from normal stretching which brings muscle bundles closer together)
- Breaking scar tissue – from past injuries or overuse micro traumas causing tension and inflexibility
- Breaking adhesions – to help the return of normal tissue tension and restore a normal range of movement.
- Increased tissue permeability –to maintain normal elasticity in tissues
- Opening microcirculation – increases total blood flow and improves the exchange of fluid to the tissues
- Pain reduction
- Relaxation