How Does Sports Massage Work?

Sports Massage

How beneficial is sports massage for athletes? Does it work? Those who offer sports massage in Brunswick often claim that this massage helps in preventing sports-related injuries. Pre-event sports massage warms-up your muscles. Massage encourages blood flow and prepares your body for physical activity. Injury or fatigue often compromises the normal blood flow. The following are three reasons for taking sports massage:

  1. It reduces inflammation and prevents injury. 
  2. It helps in quick recovery and reduces muscular fatigue. 
  3. It helps you gain mental focus. 
  4. It helps you relax. 

Athletes always look for new ways to improve their performance. Sports massage is one of the ways that are allowed by sports associations. 

When the levels of your training increase, the risk of injuries also increases. You overuse your muscles. This can cause minor tears and strain in your muscles. You often take these aches and pains a little less seriously when you have some goals to achieve. These minor injuries can lead to serious injuries. Ignoring them makes your body more susceptible to strain and injury. 

Sports massage is one of the best ways to encourage muscle repairs. When muscles overwork, this leads to tension and lactic acid built-up in them. Sports massage releases tension and lactic acid built-up and increases the flow of oxygenated blood to muscles. Muscles need oxygenated blood for repair. This massage prevents injuries due to muscle overuse. This is the reason why sports massage should be an important part of an athlete’s sports program. The following are the benefits of sports massage

Pre-event Sports Massage   

You need to prepare your body for a competitive event. This is a 15-20 minutes brief and invigorating massage. This massage within an hour before the event helps your muscles warm-up. 

Post-Event Massage 

This is a relaxing and calming massage. It reduces inflammation, muscle soreness, and muscle pain. This is a 15-20 minutes massage administered through clothes. Post-event sports massage increases the flow of oxygen and blood to tense areas. Strenuous muscle use leads to metabolic waste built-up. The massage flushes out these metabolic waste products. 

Deep Tissue Massage 

This is an intense massage that helps in releasing connective tissue restrictions, also known as myofascial. Deep tissue massage also relieves chronic tension, increases your range of motion, and improves posture. It improves the fascial system’s strength and circulation to restore fascia length and flexibility. When there are chronic knots in the deep muscle tissues, fibrous tissue injury can cause chronic muscle and joint pain. The massage encourages the body to release tension. This further promotes injured tissue repair. 

Sports Massage

Relaxation Massage 

The purpose of a relaxation massage is to promote rest and relaxation. Relaxation massage is based on Swedish massage. This is a smooth, gentle massage style that improves the range of movement and circulation. You get relief from minor muscle pain. This massage includes a series of vibrational tabs, kneading of the muscles and long, gliding strokes. This applies calming pressure to ease muscle tension, improve blood circulation and improve flexibility.