Sports Massage: Types and Health Benefits
Sports massage is a form of bodywork for athletes. It is used to help prevent injuries and to gear up the body for athletic activity as well as to maintain form. It also helps them recover from workouts and injuries. It can be of three types: pre-event massage, post-event massage, and maintenance massage.
Types of Sports Massage
Pre-event massages help in preventing serious athletic injury. It helps the muscles warm-up, stretches them, and makes them flexible for optimal athletic performance.
Post-event massages help reduce swelling due to muscle tears, loosens tired and stiff muscles, and reduces cramping. It also helps speed up the athlete’s recovery time and alleviates pain.
Maintainance massage is done at least once a week and is a regular part of athletic training programs. It increases the flow of blood and nutrients to the muscles. It helps reduce the development of scar tissue and increases flexibility.
Benefits of sports massage
Unlike stress-relieving whole body massages, sports massage focuses on stimulating your trigger points and stretching tight areas. Sports massage borrows its techniques from other disciplines like physiotherapy and osteopathy. It can involve multiple massaging techniques like soft tissue release, neuromuscular technique, positional release, and fascial release to name a few.
You will be expected to move around a lot and communicate with your therapist so that they can respond to how your body feels. Always tell your therapist if you are in any kind of pain. You can benefit from sports massage in the following ways:
- It prevents you from getting sore muscles after exercising.
- It helps you exercise more efficiently and improve your performance.
- It helps treat injuries including shin split, tennis elbow, sprains, and strains.
- It improves your heart rate and blood pressure.
- It increases your circulation and lymph flow.
Whether you’re a competitive athlete or a fitness-oriented person, muscle tears and soreness impair your ability to keep doing what you love. Thankfully, sports massage is an effective way to manage the ups and downs of an active lifestyle.
