Sports massage is a term often discussed and often comes with some misconceptions. It is not just for athletes but is for anyone who is active to any degree. It is often referred to as being painful, but this is not necessarily the case. So, the following are some answers to four common questions about sports massage.
What is sports massage?
Sports massage is the use of a range of massage techniques applied to your muscles that are used in a specific sport or activity. Whether you are training for a specific event, regularly exercising or getting back into an activity a focused sports massage can be of benefit. For those of you training for a specific event, or series of events, a sports massage will take into account the phases of your training whether you are in preparation, pre-competition, competition or transition. The sports massage would be modified to suit each phase.
Isn’t sports massage really painful?
This is a misconception and a sports massage does not have to be really painful. If you have muscular tension or a previous injury that restricts movement there may be an element of discomfort – this is however, entirely within your control as your feedback to the massage therapist should always determine the depth and intensity of any massage, sports included.
Why is sports massage good for me?
There are a range of reported benefits from receiving a sports massage and these include:
- May improve flexibility and joint range of motion
- May decrease muscular and fascial tension
- May improve recovery times
- May assist with injury prevention and rehab
- May help to alleviate stress from everyday life to enable better rest and allow for more focused training.
How often should I get a Sports massage?
There are a lot of variables to consider including your budget, your phase of training, if you are experiencing muscular issues during your training, if you are more injury prone, and even how massage normally affects you and what benefits you gain from it short and long term.
If you have not included sports massage in your training programme before than starting a series of massage in the preparation phase would be best – you can then assess how you feel post massage, what worked, what you might like to modify with massage and how often you would benefit in relation to your training.
Auckland Physiotherapy offers massage packages and you can purchase these to assist with your sports massage scheduling – and save some money as well.
With the marathon season upon us, the change in seasons that brings a change in sporting events and codes, and just generally being more active as we come out of winter, now is the time to book in a sports massage.
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