SPORTS MASSAGE

What is sports Massage?

Lisa Rogers

Photo courtesy of MassageNerd.Com

Certified Massage Therapist, Holistic Health Practitioner

Sports Massage is not just for professional athletes.  Do you jog, lift weights, bowl?  All physical activities use muscles.  In fact, the simple act of drinking your morning coffee or brushing your teeth requires the use of many different muscles.  Consider what you are doing when you drink your coffee. Perhaps you are reading the newspaper. You remove your hand from the paper and reach over to pick up your coffee; this uses more muscles than you may realize.  You use several muscles in your arm, hand, fingers, neck and even perhaps abdominal muscles (to stabilize the body during these movements).  This was all before you even brought the coffee up towards your mouth!  If that simple movement can involve so many muscles, imagine what jogging must use!  I’m sure you can imagine how overworked your muscles can be after any kind of exercise, and Sports Massage is customized based on your sport of choice.  If you play volleyball, you may need to have different muscles worked, and a different technique may be indicated for a wrestler or a long distance runner.  Your therapist will personalize the entire session to you and your given needs. 


Sports Massage is a great way to help prevent injury.  Massage can assist with muscle flexibility and range of motion which is important not only in sports, but in each and every person.  When muscles are tight they are more apt to be pulled or torn. Individuals who participate in strength training, spend a lot of time building muscle and it is important that they also include activities to maintain flexibility and range of motion. 


Unfortunately, there is one group of athletes who, much too often, miss out on the incredible benefits of massage.  These are High School athletes.  Highs school students are going through so many changes during these four years. Massage can be beneficial to all high school students and especially to the athlete.  Consider the football player, this player is knocked around considerably during the game which is likely to cause pain and inflammation. But, this is not the only time they are subject to injury.  Football players, as well as all other High School athletes train hard.  They get up early for training and get home late from games.  They have homework and class work and at some point try to fit in a social life.  Let’s face it, they are over worked and their muscles feel it!  Massage is a great way to help keep their muscles moving freely, prevent injury and assist with the healing of any injuries they may have, and massage can even help them get better, deeper sleep. 


Take a moment to talk with your Therapist about what type of massage is best for you and don’t forget to ask about massage for your teen athletes, or any teen for that matter. During the highly stressful time of High School, anyone (including you) could use an hour to themselves, to allow the body to de-stress. 

Benefits of Sports Massage

·        Increased Flexibility and Range of Motion (both which may help to prevent sports related injuries)

·        Speeds Up Recovery Time Between Workouts

·        Speeds Up Recovery After Injury

·        Breaks Up Scar Tissue

·        Helps Bring Blood and Nutrients to Muscles and Tissues

·        Promotes Secretion of  Synovial Fluid (the fluid that surrounds and protects the joints)

·        Pain Relief

Lisa Rogers
Certified Massage Therapist, Holistic Health Practitioner

EssentialMassageAndHHP@Gmail.com

WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/MassageAndHolisticHealth