Physical injuries are the biggest dear of any athlete. Be a track athlete a professional football player, hockey player. Athletes of no sporting field are free from the fear of not getting injured.
- Reduced performance – The athlete is impaired from performing at his peak
- Delay in training – the greatest disadvantage of sports injury is the inability to train during periods of injury. You lose valuable training time, be it individually or with the team. The process impairs you greatly.
- Associated long-term pain – Sports injuries are generally associated with long-term recurring pain. Athletes tend to start training prior to their complete recovery with the hope of accelerating the healing process. Little do they know many times they do more damage than good.
With such associated discomforts, athletes are gradually shifting to new methods to test their injuries. Sports Massage therapy has surfaced as a result.
What is Sports Massage Therapy?
This is a physical treatment process which is utilized by a physiotherapist to treat pain and disability of the muscles or the skeletal system. The technique utilizes joint manipulation, improvement of joint mobility along with massaging techniques like kneading, rubbing etc.
Advantages of sports massage therapy
The advantages are numerous and varied. The advantages are listed down below.
Prevention of onset of muscle soreness – Due to continuous training and repeated exercises, the muscles don’t get time to heal. Muscles need proper time and nutrition to heal. Due to repeated training schedules athletes, many times don’t get proper time to heal their muscles. As a result muscle soreness sets in them.
Thus periodically muscles should be conditioned to relieve all the induced stress in them. Sports Therapy does wonder here. It helps to remove all the induced stresses in the body thus preventing future injuries that can be caused by muscle soreness.
Helps to handle stress and Pain – Another great result of sports massage therapy is with the improved capability of athletes to handle pain and stress. Stress management is a big issue for sports figures operating at their peaks.
The pressure to perform well under such high stressed situations mentally breaks them. A relaxing massage therapy can help rejuvenate both the mind and body. A calm body and mind will be able to perform better any day.
Reduction of blood pressure and heart rate – keeping heart rates under check is essential for the longevity of an athlete. Maintaining constant steady normal heart pressure ensures proper blood flow to all parts of the body. This is regulated by the proper heartbeat directly
Lowering Anxiety – Another advantage of receiving a calm body and mind from sports massage therapy is the removal of anxiety. The anxiety of performance is greatly removed when the mind is confident in itself and the body.
Conclusion
Normal massage offers only recreational benefits. Sports massage has an added therapeutic advantage. With benefits like stress relief, prevention of muscle soreness, lowering of heart rate and stabilizing blood pressure, it far outweighs its competitors.
Our hope is that you stay healthy and stay fit! If you want to stay agile for a longer time, we suggest you incorporate sports massage into your daily routine.
