Sports Massage
What is Sports Massage?
- Massage tailored to individual needs.
- Often deeper than holistic massage
- Combines with other techniques to release muscle tension, stress and help rehabilitat e soft tissue injuries
- Compliments other treatments including:- Chiropractic, Osteopathy and Physiotherapy
Do I have to be a sports participant?
NO!
Sports Massage can benefit anyone from office worker to international athlete.
Whether you need muscular relief from office work or something to complement training, if you are 16 or 60, Sports Massage can work with your needs to help you get the most from your muscles.
When can it help?
To relieve muscle tiredness and general aches and pains for daily working life or alongside an exercise/training regime. This helps keep on top of any adverse muscle tension or imbalances to reduce the risk of injury allowing you to put your best into your work, sport and exercise.
Aid to injury recovery
Restoring correct muscle length and reducing any scar tissue, which may cause restrictions and problems later in life. Used in conjunction with a sports rehabilitation programme, the time of recovery can be reduced getting you back to doing what you enjoy faster.
Pre or Post Event/Activity
Before exercise, certain techniques can be implemented to get the muscles ready and awake to work, drawing blood and thus the nutrients needed for energy, to the areas that will be used within your activity. After exercise, sports massage is a great way to speed up recovery. It helps remove the waste products of exercise from the muscles and brings in much needed utrition, thus reducing the delayed muscle soreness acquired from a tough gym session or competition.
What should I expect in a treatment?
- The first session always starts with an initial consultation and assessment to ascertain your needs, confirm that massage is the best solution for you and that it is safe to proceed
- A variety of techniques are utilised in different combinations, depths and speeds depending upon the desired outcome. The massage can thus be altered to meet individual needs
- Massage can also be combined with stretching and other soft tissue techniques to improve flexibility for an event or assist in gaining the maximum recovery level from a soft tissue injury.
- Sessions are always concluded with advice, given to ensure the benefits gained are maintained
Sometimes massage only solves the problem, not the cause, so other skills – including postural analysis – are used to determine the cause and help rectify it, or you may be referred to other health professionals if required.
Gait and foot analysis can check that a pain in the back, hip and knee are not referring from mechanical restrictions in the foot.
Reconditioning exercises can be given to reduce the chance of injuries / problems re-occurring.
Strapping and taping is also available to support a weak area during exercise, or may be integrated into the treatment as a means of taking the strain/load off problem areas, thus giving it more opportunity to recover.