Sports Massage

I can use Sports massage and specific exercises to benefit you even if you do not take part in Sport, it can become an integral part of your training programme. If you are looking to improve your performance and increase your competitive edge by adopting a training schedule that enhances your skill, strength, stamina, suppleness and speed.

If you want to improve you can systematically increase the level of training and thereby subject the body to gradual and controlled overuse. It is this overuse, which may often create problems and imbalances in your soft tissues. If you ignore these and allowed them to become chronic, they will not only hinder your rate of improvement but your performance will suffer and ultimately you may be susceptible to developing more serious conditions.

If Sports Massage is skilfully used it is the most effective therapy for releasing muscle tension and restoring balance to the musculo-skeletal system. People who have regular massage can prevent injuries that might be caused by overuse. A constant build-up of tension in your muscles from regular activity may lead to stresses on your joints, ligaments, tendons, as well as the muscles themselves. You can develop imbalances and tightness in muscles that can remain undiagnosed until they are serious enough to cause you discomfort or impede your performance. You can get these tight muscles from overuse, excessive stress and accumulative wear and tear. Your flexibility, relaxation and muscle balance can be impaired. As a skilled massage therapist I will be able to detect variations in your soft tissues and by using the correct techniques, will loosen, stretch, spread and lengthen muscle fibres and start to break down any fibrous matting. This will increase your tissue movement, pliability, circulation and integrity; helping you maintain a much healthier physical state.

I use Sports Massage for the treatment of injury although one of its greatest benefits is helping you to prevent injury by developing, maintaining and rehabilitating various physical structures including muscles and your immune system.

Some of the benefits of massage are;

• Improve or normalize connective tissue and muscle integrity due to mechanical effects.
• Improve or maintain range of movement and flexibility due to improving integrity of tissues.
• Reduction in muscle stiffness, pain and fatigue due to improved nutrition and integrity.
• Reduction in tension and stress due to reduced tension.
• Increase in postural awareness due to improved muscle balance and therefore joint functioning.
• Increase in metabolic rate and removal of metabolic waste due to improved elasticity of muscles and normal muscle functioning.
• Increased circulation and softening of adipose tissue.
• Increase in relaxation due to reduced tension and increased warmth from friction of hands on tissues and improve circulation.

See also:

Massage Network

Massage Therapy UK

Massage therapy is the scientific manipulation of the soft tissues of the body for the purpose of mobilising those tissues. Massage therapy affects the circulation of blood and the flow of blood and lymph, reduces muscular tension, effects the nervous system through stimulation or sedation, and enhance tissue healing. Massage is proven to have many benefits such as, relieving muscle spasms, improving flexibility and range of motion, increasing the ease and efficiency of movement and improving posture through changing tension patterns that affect posture (Gale Encyclopaedia of Alternative Medicine).

A study carried out by Touch Research Institute in Conjunction with the University of Miami School of Medicine and Iris Burman Educating Hands in 2000 found that adults suffering from low back pain found relief from massage therapy. The study "Lower Back Pain is Reduced and Range of Motion Increased After Massage Therapy" discovered that massage therapy effectively reduced pain, positively impacts of the biochemical system and attenuates psychological symptoms associated with lower back pain (International Journal of Neuroscience, 2001).