Tuesday, 20 December 2011

What is a Sports Massage?

Who is it for?
It is for athletes and non-athletic people alike, as everyone can benefit from this form of massage therapy.

What does it do?Sports massage utilises a variety of specialist techniques in order to help restore healthy function to muscle tissue.  This in turn can help reduce the likelihood of sporting injuries, help the athlete to perform at their optimum, prepare the athlete for events, help support recovery from events and assist with the healing of injuries.

What can I expect from a Sports Massage?
The Sports Massage Therapist should begin the session with a thorough consultation, looking at previous or current injuries, and medical conditions.  The Therapist then assesses the client and devises a plan for treatment.  Treatment is usually beneficial as a course of sessions.  Thereafter, monthly maintenance treatments are recommended to keep muscle tissue healthy.  The treatments that I offer, once the consultation is completed, last for 45minutes.  However, sometimes it is more useful for smaller more frequent sessions to be administered, but this depends on the area of focus and the client’s needs.

Will the treatment be painful?
The Therapist will work closely with the client in order to monitor how effective techniques are.  You’ll find that the pain perceived in a Sports Massage is usually described as a ‘gainful’ or ‘grateful’ pain, and that this diminishes rapidly to give way to feeling much more comfortable.

What are these special Sports Massage Techniques?
Sports Massage Techniques include things like NMT (Neuro Muscular Technique), STR (Soft Tissue Release), MET (Muscle Energy technique) and CTR (Connective Tissue Release).  These vary in their benefits – from overriding nerve pain responses to stretching out muscles in a specialised manner.

In addition to the specialist techniques, you will recognise some moves from regular massage, but these will mainly be used in a deeper and firmer manner. 

You will also find that Sports Massage focuses on specific areas and is not usually performed as an ‘entire body’ treatment. 
The benefits?
Regular treatments can result in a reduction of sporting injuries.  Having provided Sports Massage to a team of athletes in the UK on a weekly and bi-weekly basis for three years, the Coach was adamant that there were less injuries as a result of my input.  The athletes were also better prepared mentally, as they could rest assured that muscles were soft, pliable and primed for the demands that were about to be made on them.  

Any further questions?  Please don’t hesitate to ask me at evacyprus@me.com 

Bye for now!

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