Sports massage is the manipulation of your soft tissue. A sports massage is a highly effective tool when it comes to flushing out waste products such as lactic acid out of your body. You have probably seen groups of therapists already.
Sports massage can be used in three different ways that can benefit you as a triathlete. All can help aid recovery, may enhance performance and prevent a dreaded injury.
Pre event massage will be a slightly lighter than normal sports massage. Its main aim is to ease any tension, promote circulation and improve elasticity of the muscle fibers, ready for that big race.
Maintenance massages are exactly what it says on the tin. To maintain muscle length, ensure muscle fibers are not knotted and improve range of movement.
Post event help begin the process of flushing out waste products, relaxing damaged fibres and promote recovery by aiding circulation of nutrient rich blood flow to the muscles. Relaxation can be a welcomed benefit of Sports Massage. It can help decrease stress, putting you in a good mental frame of mind before your next race. The differing strokes of massage promote blood flow and make muscles feel warm and more pliable, relaxing tension.
Other benefits include
- Recovery: – After a hard race or event sports massage can begin to help with the recovery process. Helping to promote the disposal of waste products therefore aiding the body to recover quicker.
- Reducing pain: – Massage will help promote blood and kick start your Lymphatic system. Helping to dispose of waste products and deliver oxygen rich blood to the muscles, where it’s needed to aid recover! Massage has been known to reduce pain from recovering injuries or tight muscle areas. Making muscles feel warm and pliable.
- Injury Prevention: – Something we all want to do when competing at any level! When we have a pre-event massage it aids the warm up process. Just like before any sporting activity you are meant to do a warm up. A pre-event massage aids this process. Promoting blood flow and warming the muscles making them pliable and more able to move through a full range of movement. Regularly scheduled sports massages can help reduce the likelihood of the muscles becoming overused in the first place and can also help reduce the initial damage & inflammation that leads to the injury in the first place. Quite often it’s the same group of muscles that will begin to become injured and overused, making them like a solid mass!
- Improving PERFORMANCE: – Making improvements is the basic reason you train, in the sunshine, rain, sleet and snow. Getting in that freezing water and cycling up the steepest hill known to man! In the same frame of mind that’s the reason sports massage should perhaps be part of your racing routine. Sports massage will enable you to feel warmer, mental prepared, lighter and more flexible beforehand and helping to massage away any nagging aches and pains. Giving you more confidence for the forth coming race. Post-race massage as discussed will help prevent injury and therefore increase performance. As well as aid the recovery process. So you’re ready to go again quicker!
So why wait?
This article was written by our lead tutor of the Sports Massage Therapy Diploma Levels 3 & 4, Sam Brindle at http://www.bodyaidsolutions.co.uk
