Whether you’re a professional athlete or a casual but committed fitness enthusiast, injury can happen at any time and stop you jarringly in your tracks. Besides the pain, a sports injury will delay your training which can be frustrating and stressful. This is where sports massage, with its many benefits can help you. As both preventative and rehabilitative, sports massage can reduce pain, injury and stress, and enhance your performance.
To understand the value and role that sports massage can play in your training program, it is important to understand the difference between sports massage and other forms of treatment. Sports massage is a specialised form of remedial massage that uses specific techniques to stretch tight muscles, stimulate inactive muscles, and improve the condition of your body’s soft tissue. Sports massage is also tailored to different sports and different sports injuries.
In your sports massage treatment, a specialised sports massage therapist will use many different movements to break up scar tissue, stretch tissues and muscles, and target trigger points to alleviate pain and stiffness. Sports massage techniques are also used to relax hyperactive muscles and release inflexible connective tissue predisposed to injury. Even though sports massage is generally safe, it’s not always relaxing during your treatment. This type of specialised bodywork can be quite robust in working towards many known benefits. After your treatment you may feel muscle tenderness or stiffness, which will ease after a day or two.If you’re a recreational exerciser, sports massage can be an ongoing part of your training program because it helps muscles repair and will speed up recovery from injury. Sports massage can also decrease your risk of injury during sports as well as enhance your overall performance.
For professional athletes, to prevent injury and maintain optimal performance, sports massage forms part of a holistic and ongoing training program pre-event, during, and/or after exercise as preventative, rehabilitative and performance enhancing with targeted outcomes and benefits.Used in warm-ups, during training and in competitions, sports massage can help reduce the chance of injury before injuries happen by relaxing muscles that would be heavily used in exercise. As a preventative form of therapy, sports massage also helps to reduce recovery time after an injury.
Sports massage can reduce and shorten recovery and injury time for all levels of athletes and recreational exercisers. Injuries untreated over time not only stops training, they also tend to recur, negatively taking their toll on body and mind. Sports massage, which is also a form of deep tissue massage, works in promoting faster healing by increasing the blood flow and improving circulation to those parts of the body.
Besides the holistic benefits of sports massage as part of an ongoing training program, other sports massage benefits include:
• Decreases muscle tensionEven though sports massage in itself can be vigorous in treatment, because it helps treat injury and ease pain, this type of remedial bodywork can help you relax. With less pain to contend with, and knowing you can continue to exercise, sports massage also helps keep you in a positive frame-of-mind.
As a specialised form of remedial massage, sports massage can form part of any athlete’s game plan. Together with nutrition, lifestyle, sleep habits and commitment, sports massage not only prepares your body for future exercise, it also helps to maintain fitness, increase endurance and enhance performance.
Bondi Junction Massage & Float Centre is a restorative and remedial oasis of calm and wellbeing in the heart of Sydney’s eastern suburbs, treating thousands of clients since 1985. To find out more about our Sports Massage therapy or any of our other treatments make contact today, or book now.
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