Whether you are involved in a specific sport or just lead an active lifestyle, massage therapy can help lessen your chances of injury and help enhance your athletic ability. Therapeutic massage can be effective after a strenuous training session, before or after a competitive event, and can also help heal an old or new injury.
Top athletes from around the world use massage therapy and other forms of bodywork to achieve peak performance in their sport. In fact, sports massage was made a part of the Medical Services Team for the first time in history at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London. This shows that athletes and coaches from different countries consider massage to be an important part of their preparation and training. You can do the same and gain a competitive edge over the competition by doing what the pros do.
Muscles can easily become overworked by overtraining. When a muscle becomes tight, it becomes inefficient. It cannot elongate and protect the joints fast enough to avoid damage. Massage helps to improve muscle elasticity by stretching and lengthening shortened muscles which helps you avoid injury.
Intense training can also lead to a buildup of waste products within the muscles. Regular massage not only increases circulation to bring oxygen and deliver nutrients to the muscles, it also helps to speed up the removal of these metabolic wastes that can make you sore a day or two after heavy training. By removing these waste products from the body faster, it allows you to recover faster, so you can resume training sooner.
Massage is cumulative. This means that each massage session builds onto the next and you reap greater benefits when you receive regular treatments. It cannot be stressed enough how important regular treatments are to the athlete. There comes a time when an athlete must come to terms with an injury and decide whether or not to continue training. Recovering from an injury during training is not likely if one continues to train at a high level. The risks involved if intense training continues can lead to more damage and possibly surgery.
The best defense against injury is prevention. Preventive therapy can help increase the potential of an athlete. Unfortunately, massage therapy is not a quick fix. If you are already injured, it may take several sessions to achieve the level of training before the injury. This is why Prevention is key. Receiving regular massage treatments can actually help prevent injury. Oftentimes during a session, areas of tension and soreness are felt that was not noticed before. These tender areas can be signs of the beginning stages of a future injury. Getting these areas "worked out" can help you to continue to train hard so you can achieve your athletic goals in your sport.
Making massage therapy a part of your training regimen can only benefit you as an athlete. Strength and endurance can be more easily attained with a relaxed and flexible body. Combining massage with regular training allows your muscles to work more efficiently, increases circulation to speed healing allowing you to recover faster so you can train harder, reduces muscle spasms and injury, and what every athlete wants, improved athletic performance.
Although the demands of each sport is different, finding a knowledgeable massage therapist is also key to helping you achieve your athletic goals. Training for an event such as a marathon or triathlon places a lot of stress on your muscles and joints. Regular sports massage and other forms of bodywork treatments every one or two weeks can greatly enhance your athletic ability. If you want to maximize your potential as an athlete, or if your training is limited due to muscle spasms or pain, it may be time to give massage therapy a try.
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