One of the most popular treatments at one2one therapy in Bridgend is sports massage.
It’s a service that seems to be much in demand, so here’s a little information about how sports massage differs from Physiotherapy and what the benefits are.
While massage in general is known for promoting relaxation, there are many different types of massage including Swedish massage, acupressure, shiatsu, Thai massage and so on.
Sports massage is a type of massage designed to promote muscle recovery and alleviate pain, and is the perfect accompaniment to the other services on offer at our Bridgend clinic. It is one of the more firm types of massage and practitioners have to undergo additional specialist training to carry out the techniques.
Here are some of the benefits of sports massage – for both athletes and non-athletes:
Relieving post-exercise muscle soreness
The Greeks and Romans strongly believed in the benefits of massage for the athletes of their time. Galen (AD 30-200), who was a well-known Roman physician, prescribed massage for the gladiators both before and after exercising.
Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is the painful stiffness in your muscles that you get after strenuous exercise. Without treatment, this soreness can last for several days.
Sports massage following exercise is proven to prevent and relieve this pain. It is particularly popular with professional athletes who need to repeat intense exercise frequently and therefore need to recover fast. However, there are other benefits to this treatment, too.
Improving muscle length and flexibility supporting injury recovery and injury prevention
Sports massage incorporates a series of stretches which are proven to improve muscle length and flexibility. This reduces the risk of injury during exercise.
Following an injury, the body can sometimes adopt what we call an analgesic posture – this unnatural stance may relieve short term pain, but long term can lead to further problems. Usually this adopted posture causes muscle tension and decreased muscle length which can lead to pain.
A sports massage can release tight muscles contributing to or caused by an injury, even if the injury was caused a long time ago. Sports massage can often improve recovery.
Additionally, the endorphins released during the treatment act as your body’s natural painkillers. In short, most musculoskeletal conditions benefit from sports massage.
Decreasing stress and promoting energy
Like most types of massage, one of the benefits of sports massage is that it is excellent for releasing stress. During a sports massage, the body releases neurotransmitters called endorphins.
These endorphins, released by the pituitary gland and the hypothalamus, are proven to decrease anxiety, provide pain relief, improve mood and enhance a person’s state of well-being.
However, unlike other types of massage, which can leave the recipient feeling sleepy, sports massage often leaves the recipient feeling energetic, alert and invigorated.
Being located on one of Bridgend’s busiest industrial estates, one2one therapy is perfectly located for lunchtime treatments. As well as providing sports massage for stressed employees as part of our corporate wellbeing package, numerous clients working near the estate take advantage of our accessibility and on-site parking for a lunchtime massage.
To book an appointment, or to speak to our helpful team about whether this treatment is suitable for you, please get in touch on 01656 652635.