Sports Massage

Sports and deep tissue massage is a treatment discipline of using massage for the specific benefit to targeted area. It involves management and manipulation of the body’s soft tissues (muscles, tendons, ligaments and connective tissue). It can be effective in helping recovery from injury as well as injury prevention strategy – to maintain body in optimum condition, improve circulation and aid mobility to boost performance. It is often used in conjunction with sports rehabilitation

It is not only for athletics or high performance activities but also aids to reduce stress and strain of daily work life. It helps to energise tired muscles and help with reducing tightness and pain. So, benefits of massage techniques are universal!

Benefits of Sports massage

• Effects on muscle tone and soft tissue elasticity – massage techniques can release tension, expand tissues in multidirectional fashion and trigger points within tight muscle tissue, leading to relaxation and increased relative flexibility of soft tissues.
• Improved circulation through blood and lymphatic system – This is beneficial when dealing with delayed onset of muscle soreness and can assist in removing metabolic waste through lymphatic drainage.
• Remodelling of scar tissue – Scar tissue due to injury and trauma can adversely affect normal elasticity of muscle fibres leading to tightness and potential pain and re-injury. Deep tissue massage can work on specific areas of scar tissue, enabling break down of scar tissue and improve flexibility of muscle fibres.
• Improved recovery – Massage therapy increased tissue permeability enabling essential fluids and nutrients to go through lot more easily. This allows waster materials like lactic acid to be taken out and results in increased nutritional requirements to reach targeted muscles, enabling a rapid recovery. Massage also improved micro blood flow as it causes blood vessels to dilate enabling fresh air and nutritiion to be transported more conveniently.
• Reduction of pain – Massage can stimulate the release of endorphins (the body’s happy chemical which is released by laughter and exercises) which in turn reduces build up of metabolic waste such as lactic acid.
• Relaxation and reduction of stress and anxiety – Muscle relaxation can be achieved through increased circulation, local stretching and increased temperature, together with mechanoreceptor stimulation (sensory receptors that responds to mechanical pressure) causes relaxation of muscles.

What to expect:

At your first session, you will be required to complete a brief consultation form, so our therapist can establish any areas of concern or potential problems, as well as identifying any cautions and contra indications.

You may be expected to wear appropriate clothing.

Women: please bring something suitable for us to access the area that your require treatment for, this could be simply be a sports bra/vest and shorts. However, we also use towels regularly during the session (to preserve your modesty). You will always be given privacy to get changed.

Men: Briefs, loose shorts or tight fitting boxers are fine. This is to maintain your comfort throughout the session.

The massage pressure can be discussed however it is usually fairly deep and intense – it is meant to be therapeutic. At times, it may be more uncomfortable that you expected, particularly when working on trigger points or areas of tension. However, it should not be painful, so please let the therapist know if you need bit ease up of pressure.

After the session, you may be taught some home stretches for maintenance, or given advice. You may feel post-treatment soreness for a day or so, but this should settle fairly quickly and you should feel better. It is advisable to drink plenty of water after your massage session to help flush out toxic waste and to rehydrate your system.

Cautions and Contra-indications:

There are certain circumstances, where we avoid sports massage and sometimes we will take caution and explain it to you. You should always seek professional advice from your therapist before proceeding:

• Fever and infectious diseases
• Acute contusions/haematoma
• Open wounds
• Infections of the skin and/or soft tissues
• Acute inflammatory conditions (rheumatoid arthritis), tendonitis, bursitis, phlebitis and dermatitis
• Myositis ossificans
• Fractures
• Acute muscle/tendon tears or ruptures
• Deep vein thrombosis (DVT)
• Varicose veins
• Bleeding disorders such as haemophilia
• Recent surgery
• Hernia
• Tumours/Cancer
• Pregnancy

Appointments are booked for 1 hour (£40) or 30 minutes (£25) on our Pay As You Go option.

Please note that all new client appointments must be booked for an hour-long session so taht there is sufficient time to complete an assessment and for treatment.

To book an appointment click our contact us or call 0161 818 6545