What is Sports Massage

Sports massage is a deep tissue massage that can aid in pain management, improve flexibility and range of motion and help relax the muscles. Every kind of athlete can benefit from sports massage, from world-class professionals to the weekend jogger.

A sports massage aims to restore normal soft tissue health and function by eradicating any knots, bands of tightness, or adhesions in a tissue. These adhesions are often palpable and can be subjectively described by the athlete as feeling “tight” or “knotted”. These adhesions can develop for many reasons – high training volume (especially training or a repetitive nature), trauma (“dead leg”, muscle tear etc), muscular imbalance, poor biomechanics, or poorly designed training programmes.

The therapist, using sports massage, seeks to realign muscle fibres deep within the muscle by manipulating the skin and muscle at various angles and depths, for various periods of time. This manipulation will not only reduce adhesions but will also increase localised circulation and encourage clearance of any toxins, such as lactic acid, accumulated locally.

Sports Massage can be used as part of a maintenance treatment program and as part of the rehabilitation from an injury. It has also proven beneficial as part of an athletes pre and post-event activity.