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Athletes continually demand more of their bodies and push themselves to their absolute limits. Training and overuse-related physical stress can cause discomfort, persistent tiredness, muscular pain, inflammation, and injury. To continue training, improve results, and achieve peak athletic performance, recovery is essential.
Massage treatment aids athletes in preventing injuries and sports massage therapists will use it as an additional component of their rehabilitation plan to increase mobility and boost performance.
Sports Massage – In a Nutshell
Sports massage isn't just one type of massage; rather, it's a group of massage methods that are accomplished by methodically manipulating the soft tissues associated with a certain activity or form of exercise. Effleurage, petrissage, and deep transverse friction massage are the three styles or methods frequently employed in sports massage treatment.
Depending on the activity you play, a sports massage frequently entails a quick massage, stretching, and other techniques. It may be customized to be used as a pre-workout stretch and a chance to warm up the muscles or utilized as a post-workout massage intended to lessen pain and promote flexibility.
If you want to achieve a fitness goal, including athletic massage in your regimen will be quite beneficial. Including massage in the right mix will enable your sports massage therapist to help you achieve your goals, even modest ones like increasing your flexibility or getting your muscles ready to go a bit further.
Benefits of Sports Massage for Athletes
There are a variety of advantages of sports massage for athletes, regardless of whether they are injured or not:
v Avert potential harm
v Reduce sore muscles after exercising
v Encourage relaxation
v Decrease tension
v Improve your range of motion
v Boost your workout efforts
v Reduce DOMS
v Reduce any potential muscular swelling
v Reduce abnormal breathing patterns (BPD or dysfunctional breathing)
v Boost your athletic performance if you take part
May Improve Range of Motion and Mobility
Mobility is essential for training modalities including high-intensity functional training, CrossFit, HIIT, and Olympic Lifting as well as advanced gymnastics and Olympic lifting motions.
By the use of myofascial release, massage treatment for athletes may considerably increase flexibility, joint mobility, and range of motion. The identification of problem regions linked to inflammation, which may hinder mobility to restore range of motion, may be done very well with sports massage.
May Reduce Stress, Anxiety, and Tension
The ability of this therapy massage lessens the stress, tension, and anxiety. Several performance-related factors are psychological, therefore if you can successfully lower anxiety and stress while boosting your mood, you may enhance your athletic performance and results. Massage treatment has a great reputation for promoting relaxation, and decreased tension, and anxiety.
May Reduce Muscle Fatigue
Cross-fiber friction is one technique used in sports massage to remove muscle adhesions. Muscle and fascia fibers are also lengthened and stretched using deep tissue stripping and pin-and-stretch procedures. This aids in reducing tense muscle fibers and fascia and works in conjunction with ischemia compression to relieve trigger points.
May Improve Recovery Time
Particularly if you're preparing for a competition or event, recovery might be just as crucial as the activity itself. Sports massage can speed up your recovery by alleviating muscular aches and boosting blood flow to the muscles.
DMS (delayed-onset muscle soreness) is dramatically reduced in athletes who get sports massages right after exercise compared to those who don't. The discomfort and stiffness you experience in the days after an exercise is known as DOMS.
The best massage therapist can also assist in lowering inflammation and enhancing blood flow to the muscles. This can hasten your recuperation and assist you in returning to your regular schedule more quickly.
May Enhance Athletic Performance & Recovery
It has been demonstrated that sports massage helps athletes perform better by enhancing flexibility and range of motion while reducing muscular soreness. Individuals who got sports massages before and after exercise reported much less muscular discomfort than those who didn't.
Sports massage can assist in decreasing muscular fatigue in addition to enhancing flexibility and range of motion. This is especially helpful if you often exercise or engage in physically demanding activities.
May Provide Relief from Pain
Sports massage can aid in both the temporary relief of pain brought on by injuries as well as the long-term prevention of such injuries.
Sports massage therapists also use this technique to treat chronic pain caused by fibromyalgia or arthritic disorders. Before starting a new fitness, regimen or engaging in physical activity, it is crucial to speak with your doctor if you have any of these diseases. Moreover, do seek out a sports massage therapist if you feel any pain during or after your activity. They can alleviate your suffering by locating the cause of it.
The Final Word
Sports massage is a fantastic technique to speed up your recovery after exercise, lower inflammation, and increase mobility. If an intervention helps an athlete feel better after exercise, that is a good evidence-based outcome, even though more data is needed to determine whether sports massage has favorable impacts on performance.
Performance may be significantly impacted by the psychological benefits of sports massage alone, which include the reduction of tiredness, stress, and anxiety as well as an uplift in mood. All things considered, adding massage treatment to your recovery routine is a good method to feel better and heal more quickly.