Sports Injury Massage
Sports Massage
Massage has become an integral part of the new athletic regimen from sports medicine clinics, to college training rooms, to professional locker rooms to Olympic training. Growing number of trainers believe that massage can provide an extra edge to the athletes who participate in high performance sports. Massage has become a necessary ingredient for a complete workout. More and more people are realizing that a complete workout routine includes not only the exercise itself, but also caring for the wear-and-tear and minor injuries that naturally occur with strenuous movement. The physiological and psychological benefits of massage make it an ideal complement to a total conditioning program.
Incorporating massage in your conditioning program has many benefits. It helps you get into good shape faster, and with less stiffness and soreness. It helps you recover faster from heavy workouts, and relieves conditions which may cause injury.
What Happens When You Exercise?
Regular exercise increases vigor and promotes a general
sense of well-being. If done in moderation, it can help
relieve the effects of stress, and has been linked to
decrease in psychological depression. Regular exercise
produces positive physical results like increased muscular
strength and endurance, more efficient heart and respiratory
functioning, and greater flexibility. These positive
physical changes occur as the body gradually adapts
to the greater demands put on it by regular exercise.
The body improves its functioning to meet the challenges
placed on it. Conditioning involve three steps or phases:
Tearing Down Phase when one pushes the physical limits
Recovery Phase - Important for the rebuilding phase
and to obtain the full benefits of a conditioning program,
and Buildup Phase - when the system adapts to the new
demands placed on it. The 'tearing down' phase of the
adaptation process often involves stiffness and soreness,
especially when the amount of movement is significantly
increased from what the body has been used to in the
past. Delayed muscle soreness (24-48 hours after exercise)
may be caused by any of a number of different factors.
Some possible causes are minor muscle or connective
tissue damage, local muscle spasms that reduce blood
flow, or a build up of waste products (metabolites)
from energy production. Trigger points or stress points
may also cause muscle soreness and decreased flexibility.
These points are specific spots in muscle and tendons
which cause pain when pressed, and which may radiate
pain to a larger area. They are not bruises, but are
thought by some to be small areas of spasm. Trigger
points may be caused by sudden trauma (like falling
or being hit), or may develop over time from the stress
and strain of heavy physical exertion or from repeated
use of a particular muscle. Heavily exercised muscles
may also lose their capacity to relax, causing chronically
tight (hypertonic) muscles, and loss of flexibility.
Lack of flexibility is often linked to muscle soreness,
and predisposes you to injuries, especially muscle pulls
and tears. Blood flow through tight muscles is poor
(ischemia), which also causes pain. Each sport and athletic
event uses muscle groups in a different way. Sports
massage therapists must be familiar with each muscle,
the muscle groups and how they are affected by the specific
movements and stresses of each sport.
| 
TechieServices,
Inc.