Sports massage in Denver
and Boulder!
Sports massage is a significant necessity for the life of any athlete, bodybuilder, or person engaging in regular workouts – whether injured or not.
What is sports massage therapy?
Sports massage therapy is a form of massage utilized by active people typically involved in sports on a regular basis. This type of massage is often performed on athletes before, during, and after their athletic event; providing excellent benefits as part of their conditioning program.
Sports massage utilizes specific techniques of pressure strokes and stretches to help reach maximum performance and physical conditioning. This results in less chances of injury or pain. Maximum conditioning is enhanced by increased power, endurance and flexibility.
Massage has a number of physical, physiological and psychological benefits. Of course it makes sense to keep your body in great physical condition by receiving a mentally and muscle tension-soothing massage.
With sports massage therapy, an athlete can recover more quickly and on average experience much less pain than if they did not receive massage therapy!
What are the benefits of sports massage?
Sports massage therapy presents dozens of benefits to its recipients. Sports massage therapy often becomes a regular part of an athlete’s conditioning program, right next to exercise, structured workouts, and sports practice. Sports massage is now widely practiced and hugely supported. When an athlete utilizes sports massage therapy on a regular basis s/he is provided with a significant amount of benefits. Sports massage can:
- Increase energy
- Increase flexibility
- Decrease tension
- Enhance performance
- Prevent injuries and loss of mobility
- Restore mobility to injured muscle tissue
- Boost performance
- Increase your range of motion
- Increase and improve circulation; thus causing your tissues to receive and process nutrients that are vital for optimal body functioning and performance
- Be twice as effective compared to rest for optimizing your muscle recovery
- Help improve muscle recovery, leading to successful training
Sports massage also:
- Helps maintain the health of your muscles, keeping them healthy and flexible
- Maintains better condition of your body
- Allows for a greater range of motion of the injured muscle
- Extend the overall life of your sporting career
Sports massage helps sports injuries by:
- Assisting athletes to heal more quickly from a sports injury by accelerating the sports injury-related healing process
- Reduction in pain, swelling, bruising, and adhesions
- Partially compensating for a lack of exercise during inactivity (while recovering from athletic injuries)
- Relieving muscular spasms and fatigue-related injuries
- Decreasing the swelling of muscles while relaxing and stretching sore muscles
- Prevention of further pain in sports-related injuries
What massage techniques are used
in sports therapy?
Sports massage utilizes a blend of massage therapy styles and techniques. The massage techniques that are used during your sports massage will depend on your specific needs at the current time. (Such as, which sport you are training for, what position you play, if you have present injuries, specific goals, etc). Sports massage therapy often includes technique styles from modalities that incorporate deep work.
**Deep Tissue Massage and Thai massage for Athletes
Most athletes require myofascial oriented deep tissue bodywork to assist with injury prevention and/or recovery from an injury. I suggest several approaches that the athlete may use for self-maintenance. These techniques are crucial to extend the positive effects of our bodywork session and retain tissue integrity.
Another form of massage used for sports massage is Thai massage. Thai Yoga massage creates an increased physical and mental sense of the body feeling lengthened.
Thai massage techniques involve stretching, holding, and leaning the therapist’s body weight into various parts of the athlete’s body - improving blood circulation, flexibility, and posture.
Thai massage is especially wonderful before your athletic event, properly stretching muscles and reducing performance anxiety.
Massage prior to your big event
Pre-event massage is a great means for increasing or decreasing the stimulation of nerve cells, ligaments, and joints. This helps keep muscles and ligaments loose and flexible. Pre-event sports massage can also help to prevent excessive micro-trauma (cell membrane injury).
Massage before a sports event typically consists of stretching and warming up the tendons and ligaments of the legs and arms. It is imperative that an athlete is properly warmed up before his or her big event. When properly warmed up, performance ability is increased and the chance of injury is decreased.
Pre-event sports massage also helps nervous athletes to relax and calm down before competition.
Your massage should be performed before your specific warm-up.
Massage after your sports event
Sports massage provides several benefits post event:
- Amazing relaxation for the athlete’s body and mind (most athletes contend massages to be their number one choice of relaxation)
- Relief from muscular fatigue
- Relief from soreness and stiffness
- Muscles, joints, tendons, and ligaments maintain flexibility and looseness
- Speedier recovery time
- Your body is better able to transport oxygen and nutrients to your muscles (due to enhanced circulation blood flow)
- Toxins and by-products are carried away from your muscles more efficiently
Tips after your sports massage
Stretching
Stretching after a workout helps to relieve the body of muscle soreness and stiffness. Stretching after massage enhances the benefits of massage by facilitating the flushing out of waste products and toxins from your muscles.
Drinking water
After any type of massage, it is important to drink at least 24 ounces of water (about 3 glasses). This quickens the process of the release of toxins and highlights muscle flexibility.
Breathing
Breathe deeply! Breathing and massage induce lymph movement. Breathing helps to trigger lymphatic vessels when exercise is obsolete.
*If you are wanting a massage for sports injuries related to muscle damage, please wait at least 48 hours after your injury before getting a massage.
Maintenance: See our videos on self-maintenance techniques.
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Thai massage for athletes
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