Stroke of genius
Whether you’re training at home or preparing for a sportive, a well-timed sports massage could be just what you need
Why a well-timed sports massage could be just what you need
Remember the last time you had a massage? Slow, gliding strokes easing tired, aching muscles? Fragrant essential oils soothing you into a blissful sleep? Wonderful as it is, if you think massage is just for relaxation, you could be missing out on a wealth of fitness benefits. When it comes to meeting those workout goals, optimising your performance or bouncing back from injury, a sports massage before or after exercise can give you the results you’re looking for. Read on to find out how…
‘A pre- event sports massage is an up-tempo treatment aimed at releasing tight muscles, reducing pain and lowering stress levels,’ says Louis Divine, ex- marathon runner and massage therapist specialising in sports and deep tissue treatments (senergize.com). ‘Afterwards, your muscles will be more flexible and your circulatory system stimulated, delivering oxygen and nutrients more efficiently to every cell in your body.’
And there are psychological benefits to having a massage before a sportive, too. ‘Pre- event sports massage aids athletes into a state of relaxation and hones their focus, bringing a stillness to their mental state,’ adds Divine.
‘The massage is carried out with just the right amount of speed to stimulate the muscles while keeping the client relaxed.’
After your training or event, massage involves much slower and deeper techniques, and has an entirely different aim. ‘ The goal here is to relax the nervous system, moving the body from a sympathetic “fight or flight” state, to the parasympathetic “rest and digest” zone,’ say massage and bodywork experts from massage studio Masaj (masaj.me). ‘Stretch techniques further relax muscle tissue and the nervous system, and increase the length of muscle from a contracted state into an extended one.’
Post- exercise, a massage also boosts recovery by flooding the area with blood, nutrients and lymph, which stimulates the removal of waste products and toxins such as lactic acid. And it doesn’t stop there. ’Mobility techniques also relieve tension around joints, extend their range of motion and increase synovial fluid into the joint capsule, boosting healing and recovery,’ add the Masaj experts.
KNOW YOUR TRIGGERS
If you do succumb to injury during training or competing, there are plenty of massage styles that can help your body heal. You’ve probably heard of trigger points, hard areas of muscle that hurt when pressure is applied to them– you’ll certainly know if you have one that’s active! ‘Sometimes referred to as “knots”, trigger points are adhesions in muscle fibres that cause pain. They can be very debilitating for an athlete, causing discomfort and affecting balance and coordination,’ explains Divine.
Neuro Muscular Technique (NMT) is a great way of releasing trigger points. ‘By pressing on the trigger
point, a “washout effect” is created, then, when the pressure is released, oxygen and nutrient-rich blood floods back into the area,’ explains Divine.
‘It can be quite an intense treatment but it’s also incredibly effective.’
Massage can also help with the treatment of scar tissue. An essential part of the healing process, if too much builds up, it can limit your range of motion, but friction massage techniques can help, say Masaj experts.
You can also increase the range of motion around a joint with Muscle Energy Technique (MET). ‘MET utilises the force of the muscles and is known to be more effective than stretching,’ according to Masaj. ‘The muscle is placed in an extended state, asked to push to cause a contraction, then relaxed and extended further. The process of utilising the sensory organs and overriding them increases flexibility.’
TISSUE CONNECTIONS
It’s not just tight muscles that benefit from releasing. Fascia, the connective tissue that surrounds your muscles, nerves, blood vessels and organs, can also impede your fitness goals if it’s restricted.
‘ When working normally, fascia is very fluid. A body with free- moving fascia holds itself in perfect balance with very little effort,’ says Amanda Oswald, myofascial therapist and author of Living Pain Free: Healing
Chronic Pain with Myofascial Release
(Lotus Publishing, £11.99). Some sports, however, can compromise its integrity. ‘Sometimes there might be a specific injury event but, for many, the changes build up gradually,’ explains Oswald. ‘Contact sports such as rugby lead to trauma to the body, other sports like running, swimming or cycling involve repetitive actions, while racquet sports are one-side dominant.’
If it’s been compromised, your fascia will become stickier and thicker, which inhibits its normal gliding action, potentially resulting in damage, restrictions and the formation of trigger points. ‘Over time, this can put extra pressure or load onto areas of the body, leading to pain and other symptoms,’ warns Oswald. ‘Any change or damage to fascia will trigger the inflammation response, the body’s natural repair mechanism. If fascia remains restricted after repair, this can lead to chronic inflammation as the body repeatedly tries to repair what it thinks is an injury.’
Because fascia is a slow-releasing tissue, treatment needs to reflect this. ‘ With myofascial release, the therapist applies gentle pressure and waits for a sense of the tissues starting to release, which may feel like a softening or lengthening of the tissues,’ explains Oswald. ‘Clients are often surprised at how such a gentle and relaxing treatment can work so deeply into the body.’
‘Restricted fascia can impede your fitness goals’