Services Offered

What is Sports Massage Therapy?

Sports Massage Therapy focuses on the use of various massage techniques to assist athletes in recovering and preparing for competition. It also helps an athlete to heal after certain kinds of muscle-tendon injuries. Massage for athletes is a very old concept dating back to the times of the first Olympic games.

Sports Massage utilizes muscle pumping compression techniques, kneading techniques, cross-fiber friction, shiatsu style direct pressure to tender points and trigger points and passive and active stretching techniques to increase the readiness of the muscle tissues before competition. They will also use ice-massage, ice packs and moist heat to enhance an athlete's recovery from mild forms of tendonitis due to over training.

A Sports Massage therapist like a Neuromuscular therapist requires extensive knowledge of human anatomy, Kinesiology, and Biomechanics to perform this type of therapy. Many sports teams have hired Sports Massage therapists to help all of their athletes on the team to perform at a higher level with fewer injuries. Many elite, Olympic-level athletes will not train unless they have a Sports Massage therapist available to help them recover. Some of these athletes are able to train much more often by receiving a massage after every training session (sometimes three times per day). This gives them the ability to achieve much faster gains in strength and stamina because of the enhanced recovery Sports Massage provides.