• Knead Massage provide EXPERT pre and post event sports massage and remedial massage for competitive and recreational athletes.
• Our experienced sports therapists will systematically determine the cause of your aches and pains and quickly resolve them so you can perform at your best.
• Get an edge over your competition – hit the book now button.
Why get a sports massage?
• Competitive athletes are a lot like race cars. You don’t race a performance vehicle without expert maintenance. Wasting money on a second rate sports therapist leaves you exposed to injury and underwhelming performance.
• Finding an expert sports therapist means you’ll sort problems out before they become an injury.
• Stay on top of your sport by getting expert sports and remedial massage.
What’s sports massage?
Sports massage is a branch of professional massage that deals with the needs of an athlete before and after performance. The goal of a sports massage is to improve performance through optimised tissue function and reduce injury risk and detect injury before it becomes problematic.
Sports massage is used BEFORE an event to improve the condition and range of movement of soft tissues such as muscles by the stimulation blood and lymphatic flow. Pre event sports massage is not a slow relaxing style and is used to excite the muscles and generally prime a high performance individual to compete at maximal level – without injury.
Post event sports massage is used to assess the body for irritation, swelling, tears, strains and tension – and accelerate recovery through touch and clinical observation.
At Knead Massage, sports massage is tailored to the INDIVIDUAL and their different sports and injury profile.
When to get sports massage?
When you want to be psychologically ready to win. Numerous studies have indicated a powerful psychological boost from regular sports massage.
The best times to get sports massage are immediately before or after your event.
Pre event sports massage is a fast “excitatory” massage style – targeting soft tissue techniques using “the Swedish movements”:
• Effleurage
• Petrisage
• Friction
• Tapotement (percussion)
• Vibration
Pre event massage is usually brief 10-30 minutes.
The techniques are used to:
• Stimulate blood and lymphatic flow
• Preparing joints by taking them through range of motion
• Excite the muscles (stimulating Acetylcholine – the performance neurotransmitter responsible for muscle activation)
• Warm the muscles up
• Reduce performance anxiety
Post event Sports massage can be performed immediately after an event on the field, the same day as an event or the next day. Techniques used in post event sports massage may include soft tissue, deep tissue, nerve tissue and joint mobilising techniques.
Post event sports massage is usually 30-90 minutes long and is used to:
• Promote blood flow
• Assist with the clearance of blood lactates
• Reduce delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS)
• desensitize angry tissues
• determine the presence of muscular lesion or irritation (such as strains)
• reduce swelling
• calm down excited tissue
When to exercise after sports massage?
This will depend on whether you are getting a pre event massage or post event sports massage.
• Pre event sports massage is designed to stimulate an athlete to perform better within the next 20-40 minutes.
• Post event sports massage is designed to get an athlete back to training as soon as possible. The variable are too complicated to discuss in depth, but if you haven’t been injured the next day is often the goal. Ask your therapist for an answer appropriate to your situation.
Links
https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/sports-massage
https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/massage
https://www.healthline.com/health/swedish-massage-vs-deep-tissue#1
https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/swedish-massage
References
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7228568/
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0300060518814999
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/cb23/aab04b1fc795573c22fc20e356539a9aecab.pdf
https://journals.lww.com/nsca-scj/fulltext/2010/04000/Massage_s_Effect_on_Injury,_Recovery,_and.7.aspx