Sports Massage
What is Sports Massage?
Sports massage utilizes specific massage techniques to assist athletes during their performances, both in training and competition. It enriches conditioning programs and is a component in the training routines of Olympic and professional athletes, as well as in school and university sports programs and on the sidelines of various competitive events. Ultimately, sports massage enhances performance. It also ensures health and well-being of the athletic performance. Most of the principles involved in sports massage apply to anyone involved in sports activities.
The benefits of sports massages are:
- Helps the athlete prepare for and recover from competition
- Reduces the potential for injury
- Aids in injury rehabilitation by helping muscles stay flexiblerem
- to allow athletes to train at a higher level and decreases the chance of injury
- Aids in reducing edema
- Increasing circulation will move healing nutrients to the injury site
- Decreases muscle soreness
- Eliminates metabolic wastes
- Also, facilitates the release of endorphins – the body’s natural painkiller
There are combinations of techniques that focus mainly on the areas of the body a person exercises a lot. For example, a cyclist’s sports massage concentrates on the legs; a hockey player the legs, arms and upper body, baseball player; the arms and upper body. Techniques that are used produce effects the may initiate immediate results on performance or accumulate over time, such as producing:
- Mental alertness and clarity
- Greater energy and faster recovery
- Pain Reduction