fbpx
Your Guide To Doctors, Health Information, and Better Health!
Your Health Magazine Logo
The following article was published in Your Health Magazine. Our mission is to empower people to live healthier.
Cheryl Pace, Licensed Massage Therapist
Is Sports Massage Right For Me?
Change Your Pace Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork
. http://www.massagebook.com/biz/changeyourpace

Is Sports Massage Right For Me?

As the cold, dreary days of winter give way to warmer, brighter days of spring many people feel motivated to start a new exercise program to get in better shape for the summer months, or amp up their winter program by taking it outdoors. Whether you are brand new to exercising, a weekend warrior or a sports enthusiast, spring seems to elicit enthusiasm for movement that may have gone dormant the past few months.

It’s easy to overdo, especially if you’ve taken a few months off from exercise. Tired, sore muscles can be demotivating at best and at worst, lead to injury. The key, experts say, in addition to having a physical prior to starting any new exercise program, is to start slow and build up over several weeks.

Depending on your level of fitness, you may need to start with a short 10-15 minute walk until your body gets accustomed to activity. If you have been training indoors all winter, know that outdoor exercise tends to be more strenuous than the same activity indoors, so take that into account as you increase your training. No matter what activity you enjoy, be sure to stretch, drink plenty of water and consider adding sports massage to your training program.

Elite athletes have been including sports massage in their training programs for years. Many professional teams have sports massage therapists that travel with the teams on a regular basis.

In general, sports massage is a customized approach to improving performance and improving overall mobility while decreasing pain from overuse. A session might be a full-body approach to increase ease of movement or injury focused, whereby the therapist targets areas of specific conditions like low-back pain, tennis or golfer’s elbow, or other common sports injuries. Pre event sports massages help the athlete prepare for immediate high-intensity activity by warming the muscles and energize the nervous system and post event sports massages help to calm the nervous system, reduce pain and restore muscles to their normal resting length.

Top Five Benefits of Sports Massage:

  1. Improve exercise performance
  2. Decrease delayed onset muscle soreness
  3. Improve soft tissue function
  4. Increase range of motion
  5. May help prevent injuries when received regularly
www.yourhealthmagazine.net
MD (301) 805-6805 | VA (703) 288-3130