What Is Sports Massage

Most of the professional sportsmen claim that it is important to get massage beside exercises.

All sport branches are activating different muscle groups, for a qualified sport massage therapist it is important to have knowledge of muscle and skeletal system and what kind of therapy is needed for different sportsmen. Sports massage is often supported by other types of massage therapies, such as Swedish massage, deep tissue, myotherapy, shiatsu, acupressure.

Massage Is Good For What?

Sport massage has a lot of benefits for professional sportsmen and also for people doing exercises daily:

• Loosens muscles
• Helps with fatigue
• Reduces the swelling around joints
• Improves circulation and immune system, so the body regenerates itself faster
• Increases your body resistance and flexibility
• It slows the heartbeat and lowers blood pressure.
• Helps your body to get better after a hard workout
• Reduces the tension in muscles and prevents injurier

Sport massage also finds the sensitive tissues and weak muscles in your body and makes them stronger to prevent injuries. Some of the people even believes that it extends the borders of athletes.

Sports massage is mainly developed for people who do hard workouts but everybody can get this therapy in their daily lives. If you are forcing yourself physically in your daily life such as running around kids or having a physically hard work, you can get regular sport massage to feel better. Sport massage can be also a rehabilitation program for people having injuries.

Precautions

There are some points to consider before taking sports massage treatment. If you have one or more of the following conditions, it is not suggested to get sports massage:

• Fever, infection or sickness
• Open wounds, bruising, muscle tear, swelling or burns
• Serious medical condition or illness
• Skin infections

It may not be right for people with diabetes to receive this treatment. So please inform your therapist about your condition. You should also share it with your therapist if you are pregnant or have a suspicion of pregnancy. Sports massage may also be unsuitable for people with acute or long-term mental illness.

Massage therapists are trained to understand when a massage would hurt their customers. If a different condition develops, your therapist will guide you to a different health professional.

What Should You Expect From Sports Massage?

The pounding movements used in sports massage are almost always directed to the heart. It is designed to increase blood and lymph flow. Of course, you may notice that your therapist sometimes makes shorter moves in the opposite direction. This is to stretch the muscle fibers.

Your massage therapy will usually start with a variety of pounding movements using the inner face of the hand and the fingers. In this way, the tissues in your body will warm up and the blood flow will increase. At this stage of the massage, your therapist determines the sensitive points in your body and applies less pressure to these points later in the therapy.

Your therapist may use different techniques according to your condition.

How Often You Should Get Sports Massage?

If you are constantly pushing your body physically, it may be a great idea to arrange regular meetings with your massage therapist. The amount of time between your massage therapies depends entirely on the frequency and weight of your training. If you cannot create a calendar, you can get help from your therapist. Make sure that there is not too much time between your massage therapies, otherwise the development will slow down.

After Sports Massage

The sports massage was not designed to comfort and pamper you. The purpose of this technique is to protect you from future injuries and to accelerate your body's recovery. This massage therapy may make you feel a little tired or painful, so it's best to treat yourself well after massage. The best thing you can do to gather yourself is to take a shower after a massage and relax your body.

In the few hours after sports massage it is suggested not to eat so much and not to get alcohol.

Massage can lead to dehydration, be sure that you get enough water after massage.

Types Of Sports Massage

Sports massage may vary depending on specific injuries or different exercises.Beside your exercise routine and health problems, your therapy may vary before or after sporting events.

• Care or training massage
• Massage after sport activity
• Massage between sport activity
• Massage after sport activity
• Rehabilitation massage