Sports massage therapy

Sports massage is a style of massage that is specially targeting muscles for the type of sport you do. It targets ailments and injuries and is not meant to be the most relaxing type of massage.

The target areas that sports massage is used for are the muscles that you would use to play a sport. E.G when running you use your calves, quads (most of your legs), ankles, feet, lower back and your arms and shoulders.By working these areas you can loosen up your range of motion and soothe the tired muscles from training or competing. Sports massage also helps to remove lactic acid out of your muscle after training or competing to reduce soreness, somewhat like a stretching programme but more intense.

Sports massage is used to prevent and relieve injuries and sore conditions that are associated with exercise. It can often be quite strenuous and is meant to relieve and reduce the stress and tension that can build up in the body’s soft tissues while exercising. Sports massage also helps in strengthening the musco skeletal system. It can be carried out during, before, or after playing sport or exercising and uses techniques and styles that are designed to increase endurance and performance, to reduce the possibility of injury and, if there is an injury, to reduce your recovery time.

Sports massage can treat a variety of ailments and injuries that may occur as a result of exercise. It also has other benefits that allow you to train or exercise more efficiently. Some benefits that sports massage has include:

• draining away fatigue
• reducing muscle tension
• improving heart rate and blood pressure
• promoting flexibility
• injuries that occur as a result of overexertion or overuse
• treating injuries such as shin splints, tennis elbows, sprains and strains,
• corked thighs
• relieving pain
• preventing injuries
• increasing blood circulation and lymph flow