How Does Sports Massage Improve Your Performance?

It's common knowledge that regularly stretching the muscles helps prevent injuries, but sports massage takes it one step further. Sports massage supports your training and stretching program by building healthier tissues and preventing injuries.

Using this type of massage can help you prevent muscle strains and sprains, recover from events and strenuous workouts, and heal from injuries. Before athletic events and workouts, massage prepares you by stretching, loosening, and oxygenating muscles. Between workouts and events, massage can help increase flexibility with assisted stretching and the release of chronically contracted muscles.

Massage Increases Circulation
After a sports event, massage can hep soothe soft tissues of the body, aid in repairing micro-tears to the muscles, and further help enhance circulation. When tight, bunched muscles relax and lengthen, they aren't apt to press as much on surrounding structures. As a result, when circulation is restored the flow of nutrients and natural pain-relievers to the stressed area increases. Improved circulation helps reduce fluid buildup in areas of swelling, too.

Injury Treatment Program
Sports massage focuses on using specific massage techniques to help heal recent injuries. Massage relaxes tension in areas surrounding an injury, reduces the painful buildup of fluids in swelling, and helps to improve the condition of the tissues so they can become stronger and more pliable.

Here's the caveat; massage treatment for sports injuries often works best when it is frequent and gentle, especially in the beginning. After a period of rest and a series of treatments the pain should ease, and you can resume your training program, stronger than ever.

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