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Sports Massage

Sports massage offers a number of benefits both for athletes and for people in everyday life. It can help pain reduction, which is often caused by muscle tension and waste products. The massage techniques used by our therapists work deeper into the muscle tissue than a normal relaxation massage, thereby speeding up the healing process within the soft tissues.

Sports massage can still offer relaxation

Sports massage can still offer relaxation, as the muscles relax through the heat that is generated.

Sports massage helps mobilise tissues that cannot be stretched using usual methods. It helps break down scar tissue that has resulted from injury or trauma, while assisting the body in the removal of waste products such as lactic acid. It encourages the muscles to take up oxygen and nutrients to help them recover quicker. The techniques can be used by sports people both pre-event – to stimulate muscle action – and post-event/training, to aid recovery. It plays a huge role in injury prevention and rehabilitation following injury and many athletes find it an important part of their training regime especially if used regularly.

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Maintenance massage

This is a regular massage treatment programme, tailored to work on specific muscles used in an athlete’s particular sport, for example, the muscles of the lower limbs would usually be concentrated on when treating a runner. By focusing on certain muscle groups our therapists can help maintain or improve joint mobility and muscle flexibility. This type of massage approach is used more to prevent injury from occurring in the first place.

Massage during sporting events

Pre-event sports massage is used as an enhancement to an athlete’s warm-up programme in order to promote blood circulation and reduce excess muscle tension before competing. It can be adapted to individual’s needs and can either relax or stimulate muscles according to desired outcomes. Post-event massage is intended to reduce any muscle spasms and metabolic build-up that occur with high intensity exercise, therefore speeding up the body’s own recovery pattern so that return to further training and competition is quicker.

In sport massage

OLD TEXT Rehabilitation of injuries

Sports massage can help speed up the healing of injured tissues and reduce discomfort during the rehabilitation process. The techniques utilised by our sports massage therapists are effective in the management of both acute and chronic injuries. Certain techniques can aid the healing process by improving the formation of strong and flexible repair tissue, which is vital in preserving full pain-free range of motion during the rehabilitation stage.

Sports Massage FAQ's

Sports and Remedial massage is applied with your goals in mind, meaning we look at what you need and then apply the relevant technique(s) to help you reach your goals. These techniques vary from: finding muscle imbalances which may be the cause of your current issue and offering remedial exercises to correct them; questions about your sports equipment or mechanism of injury; along with treating the tissues which are crying out for attention. Your goals may vary depending on whether you are carrying an injury or are just needing to bring your legs back to life for your next training session.

There is no “best” time to have a sports massage, everyone differs in their needs and responds differently to treatment. As a sports person my general rule of thumb is this: if you have an injury which needs treating, it is best to leave it a few days after your heavy sessions so we can drop into the tissue without you leaving the couch. Muscles are very lively after interval sessions or heavy training loads, because the tissue is over-sensitive at this point we can’t sink into the muscles to relieve the injured tissue. If you are not injured and your muscles are sore post a hard session, then this isa good time to have a recovery treatment to keep you on track with your training plan. If you are treating yourself to a massage for the first time before an event, give yourself a few days for your muscles to settle after the treatment. Regular massage goers know how their bodies respond to a treatment, some bounce off the couch ready for the 100m, others take a few days to bounce back. Err on the side of caution and give yourself a few days to recover, it would be a shame to ruin all that good training.

If time and budget were not an issue, every week. But the reality is they are. So if you are on a budget and treating yourself to a massage, then (as a sports person) I would suggest having the treament prior to your event so you are ready to compete. If you receive regular massage, then keep your goals in mind, if you are unsure, read the answer above, if that doesn’t help we can always tap into our experience as therapists and extreme sports nuts to offer some advice.

Overuse injuries can occur in everyday life and are generally brought on by the things we do repetitively everyday. We will use remedial massage to treat you and look at what day to day activities could be the cause and will give you simple solutions to help with this. Generally making a few small changes can have a big effect.

A brief history is taken prior to the massage including your sports goals or event deadlines. We may do some standing tests and no doubt will review your posture (this we do with your clothes on). The majority of our treatment is hands-on work, however we want to fix you, so may glean as much information from you so we can work out what’s going on.

We use towels during the treatment and would require that you keep your underwear on, however if you feel more comfortable, you can bring a pair of shorts. Stretchy underwear is best, especially if we are treating legs.

Benefits of Sports Massage

Unsure if Sports Massage is right for you? Get in touch using the form or call one of our clinics to speak with us

Corsham Clinic: 01249 248392
Swindon Clinic:  01793 978270
Melksham Clinic: 01225 704883
London Clinic: 0207 315 4262

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