Wellness Maintenance
There are a few common misconceptions about sports massage. The first is that it’s only for athletes, or for people who regularly take hard, physical exercise. The second - and I can say this with the surname O’Neil – is that sports massage is like an Irish pub: you walk in but you crawl out! Neither view could be further from the truth.
Sports massage is a form of deep tissue massage aimed at relieving tired and sore muscles. The therapist works to a greater depth than ordinary Swedish massage, using specialised techniques to penetrate tissues and relieve tension, stress and fatigue, resulting in a profound feeling of relief and relaxation. While occasional and brief discomfort may be experienced as deeper muscles are treated, sports massage is rarely painful and cannot damage tissue. Indeed deep massage can have dramatic effects in reducing chronic muscle pain and stiffness, thereby improving mobility and flexibility.
Professional sport has long recognised the benefits of deep tissue massage to treat soft tissue or muscle injuries and to prepare for and recover from competition. Hence the term sports massage. But such massage is also an excellent way to deal with the soft tissue problems of our culture: longer hours sitting at a desk, lack of physical activity, or in some cases too much activity: while half the population are sedentary the other half take part in recreational sport to a level that would have been considered professional 20 years ago!
And just as you don’t have to be an athlete to benefit from sports massage, you don’t have to be young. As we age our muscles stiffen and become less flexible. Keeping active helps to maintain flexibility, but deep tissue massage can also go a long way in helping mobility, working out the knots and scar tissue accumulated over the years, improving the flow of blood and oxygen and stimulating the nervous system.
So whether under- or over-active, young or old, keeping muscles and soft tissue healthy and flexible can lead to a greater quality of life. Being able to use muscles pain-free is as rewarding as winning Olympic medals. Maybe there’s something in those two stereotypes after all: wouldn’t we all like to be as fit as athletes, and wouldn’t we all love to be flexible enough to drop to all fours and walk on our hands and knees!
If you have a question concerning wellness maintenance or sports massage please call Jonathan here at The Physiotherapy Clinic on 01707 329910
"We shouldn’t regard sports massage only as a way of dealing with injuries but as a way of maintaining wellness."
