When it comes to treating sports injuries, sports massage is quite popular and is taking over other methods of treatment. It is proven by National Institute of Health reports that it is getting popular among athletes as an effective physiotherapy in rehabilitation. By boosting blood circulation and relaxing muscle soreness, massage helps to nourish muscles with proper nutrients and oxygen. Also, sports massage helps the body speed up recovery and heal quickly.
Even after recovery, sports massages are practised to improve athletes’ performances. It is considered to be one of the top benefits of sports massage, as it prevents injuries and makes muscles stronger and healthier. In addition, it helps increase flexibility, improve range of motion, reduce muscle tension, and so on.
To help you understand better, let’s get deep into the types of common sports injuries and how sports massage helps in recovery.
What are the Common Support Injuries?
Sports injury is a common term for all the injuries that typically happen to athletes or non-sports persons like factory workers, painters, or anyone else. These common injuries include ankle sprain, shoulder injuries, tendinitis, etc. Hence, in short, we can say sports injuries are all those wounds and harms that happen to active people in their daily lives.
Sports injuries further fall into two major categories, which are the following:
- Acute Injuries: They are very common ones that occur in daily life routines. For example, when a person falls, gets a blow, or twists their joints.
- Chronic Injuries: These happen with the overuse of some muscles and grow over time. For example, fractures, splints, etc.
How Sports Massage is Beneficial in Rehabilitation
It mainly depends on the type of injuries and how they would be cured. Acute injuries can be treated at home with resting, icing, compressing, and elevating (R-I-C-E) and regular sports massage. On the other hand, serious injuries need proper medical care and a course of physical therapy in rehabilitation to recover.
Talking about rehabilitation is a program that includes exercises and other types of therapies, including sports massage. It is recommended to all patients suffering from serious injuries before resuming the sport or regular activity. Sports massage can be highly beneficial in rehabilitation to help athletes regain their energy and resume their lives. This massage therapy consists of different massage techniques that aid in the following:
- Stretching connective tissue
- Improving blood circulation
- Breaking down adhesions.
Hence, it helps heal injuries quickly and prevent them from happening in the future. Now, let’s get to the benefits of sports massage in the rehabilitation process, which are the following:
1. It speeds up Recovery Time
With regular massage and other medics in the rehabilitation, the injured muscles get plenty of oxygen and nutrients that strengthen them. One more positive effect of the massage is it increases the blood circulation of the injured area. That effectively helps to flush out all the toxins that get in during injury. Hence, it helps the body heal the muscles deeply and speed up recovery time in rehabilitation.
2. Reduce Pain and Inflammation
Sports massage uses different pressures and massage techniques that ease muscle tension by warming them up and stretching tissues. It helps the body treat that area and removes all the blockages or impurities like lactic acid, etc., from the injured body parts. Overall, this way allows the body to reduce pain and inflammation significantly.
3. Improves Muscular Strength
Increasing blood circulation, releasing toxins, and improving range of motion contribute to muscle strength. Hence, regular massage greatly increases muscle strength and endurance levels and effectively reduces fatigue. Altogether, it improves your ability to handle physical activities in daily life well.
4. Promotes Blood Circulation
With effective sports massage therapy, therapists ensure that blood reaches all parts of the body, even the congested ones. The benefits of healthy blood circulation are multiple, such as providing damaged tissues with oxygenated blood and helping them heal quickly.
5. Enhance Muscles Mobility and Flexibility
During a sports massage, the therapist breaks up all knots and scar tissue present in the body after injury. This reduces muscle tension and helps to improve range of motion and flexibility. In addition, massage therapy aids in lengthening and relaxing muscles for a while. Hence, it loosens the tight muscles and increases muscle mobility and flexibility.
6. Improves Sleep Cycle
Everyone who has once got a massage must have experienced that it relaxes their mind and induces sleep. When the therapists massage fatigued muscles or injured muscles, it calms them. Also, it increases the level of neurotransmitter Serotonin in the body. That is responsible for balancing mood and quality sleep cycle. Good sleep is vital for an effective healing process, and massage can aid in the recovery process.
7. Secure from Further Injuries
Regular massage will hugely benefit your muscles by strengthening them, making them healthy and ready to combat any injury. Sports massage increases the blood flow to your muscles, making them more relaxed and pliable. That further leads to increased flexibility and range of motion of muscles. It is important to keep up with massage because our muscles tend to get tighter and less responsive as we age. Hence, maintaining the health of our muscles helps to prevent future injuries as muscles are not easily fatigued or weakened.
Real-life examples to Illustrate the Importance of Sports Massage in Rehabilitation
An Athlete Runner
“I get one once-a-month sports massage now. I’ve found that different forms of Physical Therapy, including ART, dry needling and a few other things, can help keep me running healthy (current theory supports this is that my lower back gets tight, which pulls on my sciatic nerve). But massage seems to give me the exact same benefit at a quarter of the cost, and it is really helpful.”
Athlete Trainer
I usually get 1-2 training cycles. I became sold on the idea after I went through PT for piriformis and glute issues and was still having pain. Then, I went to Meridian Spa and got a sports massage; afterwards, I had no issues. Now, when I go in, I request they focus on my glutes and calves, which is really helping me.
Bottom Line
Sports Massage is not just an ordinary massage; it is much more focused on the injured areas. Further, it helps an active individual keep up with the life routine without back pain or muscle fatigue. Also, it is one of the top recommendations of therapists in the rehabilitation process.
If you are looking for a tailored sports massage near me to relax your muscles before or after the training sessions, contact us here and get a free consultation!