Why Sports Massage Is Essential for Athletes

Sports, athletic games, and intense exercises put a strain on the body as it is regularly pushed to the limit. Tight muscles, sore ligaments, and injuries are unavoidable. Because of this, individuals who are involved in these kinds of activities need specific treatments before and after each performance and training s, as well as for their rehabilitation.

Sports massage is a special technique that is specially designed for athletes and people with active lifestyles who are into sports or intense exercises. Like a regular massage, sports massage also alleviates the tension in soft tissues, but the process is more demanding on the body as the muscles have to be stretched and stimulated.

This special therapy focuses on manipulating the muscles to support the joints, tendons, and ligaments while doing certain activities. This can help improve a person’s performance, increase his flexibility, prevent injuries, and aid in the recovery after an injury.

Because it is meant to treat specific concerns and issues, there is no standard treatment used in sports massage.  Instead, it is customized based on individual conditions and the nature of the injury. It can be one of the techniques commonly used in physiotherapy, which focuses on muscle movement and function after an injury, or osteopathy, which looks at the overall healing ability of the body. It can also be a combination of both.

Massage Miranda offers remedial and sports massage services from certified therapists. This is ideal for professional and non-professional athletes, as well as people who are actively involved in sports and other intense workouts. Take a look at these benefits and see what sports massage can do for you.

Increased Strength and Flexibility

Though the service is called a sports massage, the actual treatment involves more than just a massage. Typically, the process would involve resistance exercises which help enhance muscle energy by having you push against an external weight or force. This builds up your muscle tone, increases endurance, and improves your body’s core strength.

Stretching exercises are also included which are meant to work on your body’s flexibility and expand your movements. Each improvement in your body may seem small at first, but it can actually help enhance your performance, such as being able to lift your knee higher than before or push your leg back a little farther for every step you take.

Both exercises, if done correctly, will not only help you out during training and performance but in your daily life as well. As your body adjusts to the movements, the possibility of strain and injury is reduced.

Improvement In Circulation and Faster Healing

Sports massage results in better circulation in the body through various techniques applied during therapy. With optimal circulation, blood, oxygen, and nutrients are adequately supplied to the organs, which is critical for them to function properly. This aids in your body’s recovery from injury, and nourishes your brain and heart, leading to overall peak performance.

As pressure is applied on the skin, the friction created stimulates both blood and lymphatic circulation. Improvement in blood circulation means that the muscles will have more strength and energy, while lymphatic circulation invigorates the muscles by ejecting waste and toxins from the body.

The massage process also induces the body’s excretion of fluids that help in repairing tissues. All of these factors work together to speed up the body’s healing process, decrease pain levels, and reduce swelling.

Mental And Emotional Health

Sports massage does not only help improve an individual’s physical condition, but it can also alleviate mental and emotional issues as well. Studies have shown that after receiving the treatment, people experienced better quality of sleep and less anxiety.  There are lesser incidents of depression or slumps, and they report being in a much better mood compared to before.

They generally felt good about themselves, felt less tired, and had a more positive disposition.  Their perception about their rate of recovery was also reported to be faster than they expected.

Better Body Condition

As the sports massage builds up physical strength and stretches the muscles, the overall condition of the body improves and makes it more able to withstand the strain during strenuous activities. The treatment highlights areas of the body that need to be worked on, enabling the therapist to address the problem before it can lead to an injury.

The individual also develops as increased awareness about his body’s condition, enabling him to take better care of himself, such as taking a break when needed.  If done regularly, sports massage can also aid in raising the body’s pain threshold and improve stamina.

Relaxation

The concept of relaxation may not seem to be in line with the discussion of sports and working out. However, this is actually paramount to an individual’s well-being. If the body is only ever in a tense state, constantly pushed to the limit without rest, it will break down sooner or later.

Sports massage is one of the ways you can let your body slow down and recover in between intense training or competitions. It helps in stabilizing the body’s chemistry, as well as the person’s temperament. Both factors can affect performance especially for the types of sports that involve snap decisions or require surveillance of the situation, such as in basketball or tennis.

Having this downtime in between highly stressful situations is helpful for mental recovery as well. A mind that remains clear and is able to work at its best condition in a game will give an athlete a significant advantage over his opponents.

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