Ever been told that sports massage breaks down scar tissue and gets rid of your muscle knots? Yeah this is not entirely true! It is impossible for our thumbs to press that hard to "break" your tissues down! So what we are REALLY doing is mobilising and stretching them out (to a degree). We are just heating the surface of the skin, superficial muscles and surrounding fascia to help get you moving better - these are the only physiological benefits to sports massage. One paper showed that massage significantly increased perceptions of recovery after massage but no changes to performance and no change in blood lactate. So this means that massage doesn't even remove lactic acid! Some people get aches and niggles because the body is restricted and needs to move more and quality of movement needs improving.
This is why when we feel stiff we get the urge to move. It is because on a subconscious level your brain is telling you to do this to get out of pain. Pain occurs when your body's alarm system alerts the brain to actual or potential tissue damage. Although, this is only part of it because pain involves all your body systems and all the responses that are present are aimed at protecting and healing your body. There are many types of pain - nociceptive, neuropathic, sensory hypersensitivity to name a few. Anyway talking about pain is for another blog, so keep an eye out!
There's more research to suggest that there are more neurological benefits than anything else. Sports massage has been shown to increase parasympathetic activity (state of relaxation). It does this by stimulating the sensory receptors in the skin and surrounding tissues, reduces neuromuscular excitability and therefore reducing muscle tension. The parasympathetic nervous system relaxes the body and slows many functions in the body down so it can rest. Sports massage increases your happy hormone serotonin and stress relieving hormone dopamine to so it has been shown to help reduce stress and anxiety and help reduce depression. So surely a sports massage is better then taking medication? yes, so put the pills down and get booked in for a sports massage!
Muscles can get "excited", or be subject to cramp, spasm and pain due to many reasons. Injury, muscles overcompensating for joint instability or nerve immobility. That's where we come in and help you get to the cause of your pain rather than just the symptom. Obviously we will reduce your symptoms too, we can also do a full MOT with our biomechanics coaching service and check your mobility and function in one hour! So why not book in and see us - click here to book my sports massage!
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