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Sports Massage

Sports Massage Therapy is concerned with the management, manipulation and rehabilitation of soft tissue. We are trained to treat anything from sporting injuries, occupational and postural stresses, to more serious muscle injuries.

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What is Sports Massage?

Sports massage is a form of massage that goes deeper than a typical relaxing massage. By manipulating fatigued muscle tissue sports massage can improve a wide range of issues. 

 

The pressure applied by our experts will address specific areas that are currently causing you problems as well as additional areas identified by our therapists that may be contributing to the problem. 

 

You may have heard that sports massage is painful and there is an element of truth to that – it’s not typically the sort of massage during which people fall asleep! But, it is not as painful as you might imagine and you are, of course, invited to let your therapist know how much pressure you can take.

Sports Massage - Walsall Osteopath
Sciatica - Walsall Osteopath

Why use our sport & exercise services?

Our specialist sports massage therapists are highly experienced in the assessment and treatment of soft tissue injuries, with award-winning knowledge of biomechanics, tissue pathology and healing. 

 

They are degree-level qualified in sports massage or osteopathy. They carry out a thorough assessment, treatment and rehabilitation of all musculoskeletal injuries

Treatments are suitable for complaints including:

  • Overuse injuries and stress fractures
  • Muscle tears, tendon and ligament sprains
  • Knee, ankle and foot injuries
  • Shoulder injuries, tennis/golfer elbow, hand and wrist pain

Sports Massage can be beneficial for all kinds of injuries: from participation in amateur sports to training for a marathon; from slipping whilst out walking to taking a knock on a rugby pitch; and from spending too much sedentary time to not allowing your body time to recover from multiple sporting activities.

Knee Pain - Walsall Osteopath
Neck Pain - Walsall Osteopath

Benefits include:

  • Faster healing of muscles, ligaments and tendons
  • Reducing pain
  • Improving circulation
  • Improving posture and reducing long term impact of poor posture

Sports massage has also been shown to help with tension headaches and recurring injuries.

 

The benefits of Sports Massage – Naturally, we are big advocates of Sports Massage. But to help you see what it can do, here are some of the key benefits of Sports Massage:

 

Increased range of motion – Faster healing for muscles, ligaments and tendons leads to an increased range of motion as you go about your day-to-day activities as well as helping improve your sporting performance.

 

Reducing pain and the risk of injury – Not only does sports massage reduce pain that you are currently feeling but it also helps to reduce the risk of injury in the future.

 

Increased blood flow and circulation – Sports massage helps to increase your blood flow and circulation. This in turn reduces inflammation, reduces pain and increases the speed of recovery.

Sports Massage FAQ's

Sports and Remedial massage is applied with your goals in mind, meaning we look at what you need and then apply the relevant technique(s) to help you reach your goals. These techniques vary from: finding muscle imbalances which may be the cause of your current issue and offering remedial exercises to correct them; questions about your sports equipment or mechanism of injury; along with treating the tissues which are crying out for attention. Your goals may vary depending on whether you are carrying an injury or are just needing to bring your legs back to life for your next training session.

There is no “best” time to have a sports massage, everyone differs in their needs and responds differently to treatment. As a sports person my general rule of thumb is this: if you have an injury which needs treating, it is best to leave it a few days after your heavy sessions so we can drop into the tissue without you leaving the couch. Muscles are very lively after interval sessions or heavy training loads, because the tissue is over-sensitive at this point we can’t sink into the muscles to relieve the injured tissue. If you are not injured and your muscles are sore post a hard session, then this isa good time to have a recovery treatment to keep you on track with your training plan. If you are treating yourself to a massage for the first time before an event, give yourself a few days for your muscles to settle after the treatment. Regular massage goers know how their bodies respond to a treatment, some bounce off the couch ready for the 100m, others take a few days to bounce back. Err on the side of caution and give yourself a few days to recover, it would be a shame to ruin all that good training.

If time and budget were not an issue, every week. But the reality is they are. So if you are on a budget and treating yourself to a massage, then (as a sports person) I would suggest having the treament prior to your event so you are ready to compete. If you receive regular massage, then keep your goals in mind, if you are unsure, read the answer above, if that doesn’t help we can always tap into our experience as therapists and extreme sports nuts to offer some advice.

Overuse injuries can occur in everyday life and are generally brought on by the things we do repetitively everyday. We will use remedial massage to treat you and look at what day to day activities could be the cause and will give you simple solutions to help with this. Generally making a few small changes can have a big effect.

A brief history is taken prior to the massage. We may do some standing tests and no doubt will review your posture. The majority of our treatment is hands-on work, however we want to fix you, so may glean as much information from you so we can work out what’s going on.