Whether you’re an elite athlete or a weekend warrior, a post-workout recovery strategy is essential. A massage can help minimize muscle soreness and support tissue health.
Additionally, regular sessions assist in identifying tight muscles and imbalances before they lead to injuries. Sports massage techniques also boost athletic performance by promoting flexibility, reducing fatigue, and improving the body’s ability to heal.
Pre-event
Sports massage is an integral part of many athletes’ training and recovery routines. It aims to balance body and mind, helping to achieve the peak performance required in most sports. It also helps prevent injuries and promotes muscle recovery.
A pre-event sports massage is a brief, specific treatment administered before an event. It focuses on the muscles that will exert the most effort, aiming to boost circulation, stimulate muscle activity and mentally prime the athlete for the event ahead.
Pre-event sports massage is especially beneficial for athletes who play contact sports, such as football or rugby, because it can help reduce the risk of injury and improve overall muscle coordination. It involves several techniques, such as effleurage (stroking) and petrissage (kneading), to warm up the soft tissues, identify tender areas and prepare them for manipulation. It also encourages blood flow to the muscle tissue, which delivers oxygen and nutrients and eliminates toxins. This can reduce Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness and enable the athlete to return to their regular training schedule sooner.
Post-event
Athletes who regularly use sports massage experience a variety of benefits including improved athletic performance, increased flexibility and faster recovery times. It also reduces the risk of injuries due to overuse. Athletes can achieve these results through regular sessions, and maintaining open communication with their therapist to ensure the best outcomes.
A pre-event sports massage is given before a competition, race or event and prepares the muscles to exert themselves by warming up the muscles and enhancing blood flow. It also encourages a mental focus and can help to relieve stress.
During an intense physical activity, lactic acid builds up in the muscles and can lead to delayed onset muscle soreness. Post-event massage flushes out the lactic acid, decreases muscle fatigue and improves athletic performance. Techniques used during post-event massage include effleurage (sliding circular strokes with the hands, fingers, elbows, and forearms) and petrissage (kneading). It can be uncomfortable at first but the discomfort should subside quickly.
Post-workout
Regardless of whether you’re an elite athlete or gym regular, sports massage can help improve your workout recovery. When performed correctly, this type of massage helps reduce the risk of types of sports massage therapies injury and enhances performance by increasing flexibility and range of motion. It also alleviates aches and pains and promotes overall muscle health.
A skilled NYC therapist will customize the massage to your specific needs. Different sports require the use of different muscle groups, so a long-distance runner’s needs are very different from those of a swimmer or weightlifter. The massage can also help break down adhesions, which are clusters of muscle fibers that run in different directions. This allows the body to rid itself of lactic acid and other metabolic waste, resulting in improved muscle function.
Even seasoned athletes can experience delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) after a strenuous workout or event. Post-workout massage can help relieve DOMS by stimulating fresh blood flow to the muscles and reducing inflammation. The massage can also help increase the range of motion in tight muscles and identify areas for further rehabilitation.
Deep tissue
Getting a massage after a workout alleviates sore muscles, aids circulation, increases flexibility and decreases pain and inflammation. This can be done professionally or using home-based contraptions such as balls and rollers.
Research shows that sports massage can reduce the symptoms of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) and improves recovery time. This is because massage stimulates the circulatory and lymphatic systems, flushing out toxins and delivering oxygen-rich blood to the hardworking muscles and tissues.
Regular sports massages increase flexibility by encouraging soft tissue to lengthen and return to their original architecture, making movement more fluid and less prone to injury. It also identifies any inconsistencies and irregularities in muscle tissue that could indicate possible injuries and assists with their management.
Choosing the right frequency for sports massage sessions is important, and is based on your individual needs and your fitness goals. Regular communication with your massage therapist is a great way to ensure that the techniques used align with your needs and objectives.
