Sports/Deep Tissue Massage

As a sportsman or woman your performance counts. Adding sports massage to your workout routine can improve your performance. As the training and playing hours pile up, so do the aches and pains. These little aches and pains can turn into nagging or even more serious injuries. After a strenuous workout or race, sports massage will hasten your recovery and alleviate any pain. You may find that you will benefit from a 30 minute session on a particular problem area, or a longer session for more general maintenance work.

Athletes around the world rely on massage as an important part of their training regimen. Sports massage techniques, when used regularly, can increase the blood flow that is needed for recovery. Additionally, sports massage improves the range of motion and strength of injured muscles and accelerate their healing process. With a full recovery you will be able to increase your workouts and allow your body to adapt to a higher level of stress.

 Sports massage can:

                

Enhance body awareness

Identify problem areas before they develop into injuries

Remove trigger points formed as a result of injury

Relax and stretch muscles

Improve range of motion

Restore suppleness and elasticity

Relieve pain and stress

Free muscle adhesions and soften scar tissue caused by injury or overuse

Improve circulation

Flush out toxins that cause muscle stiffness and soreness

Relax the body and mind

Speed recovery and healing from exertion Why carry soreness and stiffness from your last session or game and let it effect the next?  Instead take measures to speed your recovery from your exertion so you can reach a  higher level next workout? Sports Massage provides an ingredient for the complete  recovery! Sports Massage techniques may differ as you have different needs at different times. Pre-sport: Before sport, massage works as an adjunct to your warm-up, to increase  your circulation and flexibility, and leave your muscles resilient and ready to go. Post-sport: After a hard session you need a massage that will increase your circulation  to speed the removal of fatigue toxins, relieve your muscle spasms and prevent soreness. Fine-tuning: For regular fine-tuning you need a massage that will search out the areas  of biomechanical stress in your muscles and relieve them, before they become problems,  enabling you to train harder and more consistently. Injury Rehabilitation: For Injury Rehab. You need a massage that will speed your  healing, increase your range of motion and reduce scar tissue to allow the muscle to  expand/contract normally. Recovery Recovery following a game or training session naturally occurs but certain strategies help  optimise the process and can leave you better able to recuperate and so get more from  your next session. A cool down followed by static stretches of the often effected muscles can reduce the  occurrence and severity of muscle soreness and aid recovery. A good structure of cool down following training or a game would be as follows: 1. Cool down with light cardiovascular (aerobic) exercise, light jogging, skipping and  bounding, walking for example    for several minutes, loosening off as you go, trying to  relax the muscles. 2. Further cool down with dynamic stretches again light and easy, low effort 3. Static stretches of the major muscle groups held for 15-20 seconds, coordinated with  your breathing to aid relaxation. All of the above can be performed in a pool. To further aid this routine, though it takes some courage, use cold water showers or  baths at the end of the session. 30 seconds at a time (not your head though) followed  by 2-3 minutes of warm water, repeated 3-4 times should be enough. Dry off and dress  immediately following this. Then rehydrate adequately, alcohol does not rehydrate! Although it sounds time intensive and the last thing you want to be doing, it does work,  and worth trying if you take your sport seriously. Adequate rest and recovery is essential following playing and training and should be  taken as seriously as both. Sleep  It is during sleep that the hormones that govern muscular growth and repair are most  active. With poor sleep habits and broken sleep you are not optimising your growth  and development capabilities. Try and get 7-8 hours of quality sleep. Drinking alcohol or coffee, eating meals high in  carbohydrates reduces the quality of sleep and actually inhibits growth and repair. Try  and develop consistent and good quality habits of sleep. It can make all the difference  and makes the most of your hard training efforts.