The many benefits of sport massage

There are many benefits of having regular sports massages, and the benefits are not just for people who are injured through sport. From improving stress levels and helping you to relax, to physical benefits including increased joint mobility and flexibility, sports massage can help you to reduce the risk of injury when you’re exercising. Below we’ve listed some of the key benefits of having a sports massage.

Avoiding injury

The primary benefit of a sports massage is to reduce the build-up of tension in the soft tissue of your muscles during training. Massage is also great at breaking down the results of over exertion or excessive use that build up during training, or through playing competitive sport.

Improve performance

As the tension in your soft tissue is relaxed through massage, you will notice your overall performance improve – whether you participate in a regular badminton game with friends, represent your locality in competitive sport or enjoy time in the gym each week to keep fit.

Improving flexibility

Sports massage can help to stretch out your muscle fibres both lengthways and sideways, which helps to release tension or pressure build-up around the muscles. It will also help to break down the scar tissue which may have been caused by previous injury or trauma and which can affect the tendons and ligaments around the muscle. If this builds up, it can lead to inflexible tissues that are prone to injury and pain, which will also affect your sports performance.

Pain reduction

One of the major reasons people have a sports massage is to relieve tension and pain that has accumulated from training or competing. Having a trained therapist use their expertise on your problem areas can vastly reduce the pain, helping to relieve stress in your body and enable you to relax and unwind.

Recovery

Sports massage also improves the flow of blood to the affected area by increasing circulation, which helps your muscles to recover quicker. Massage therapy helps the blood vessels to dilate, allowing nutrition to be transported more directly throughout the body.

For more information about sports massage, and to find a list of sports massage therapists in your area, check out our directory