While regular exercise is a must if you’re to keep yourself in good physical condition over the years, it’s important to give your body time to rest and recover, or you put yourself at risk of developing an injury of some kind.
One particularly effective way for anyone who enjoys physical activity to protect themselves is to go for a sports massage, where hands-on techniques are used to help release muscles and reduce tension, encouraging your body to relax while improving circulation and helping it to remove waste products like lactic acid, which can build up during exercise.
There are all sorts of benefits associated with this kind of massage therapy – but one of the biggest advantages for athletes is how it can help with delayed onset muscle soreness, more commonly known as DOMS.
This is characterised by a dull sort of ache that manifests between six and eight hours after training and which can last for up to 72 hours post-exercise.
It can be quite uncomfortable and your mobility can be restricted, but this type of massage targets your fascia, tendons, ligaments and muscles, getting right to the root of the issue to release tension, reduce pressure on your joints and help reduce any pain you may be experiencing.
But it’s not just your physical health that sports massage can help with and, interestingly, this therapeutic intervention can also help boost mental and emotional health, as well. It’s been found to address issues like anxiety and stress, as well as potentially reducing blood pressure and helping to slow your heart rate.
If you’ve never been for a sports massage before, bear in mind that it can be quite uncomfortable depending on the techniques used, the areas being treated and what your pain tolerance is like. Always make sure you’re communicative with your physiotherapist so they know if you’re in pain.
If you’d like to find out more about this kind of massage therapy, get in touch with the Clear Physio team today.