Sports massage caters to more than just elite runners or professional athletes. Regular runners, regardless of their level of expertise or participation in competitive events, can derive advantages from sports massage. Whether you’re preparing for a race or simply running for enjoyment, sports massage contributes to a more enjoyable running experience and aids in reaching personal milestones. Just like checking your cars oil or you bike tyre pressure, sports massage for many goes hand in hand with running training aiming to keep your body running as efficiently as possible.
Sports massage for runners varies based on individual goals and requirements and can be based around: Post long run recovery, injury management support, pre-race preparation, post-race recovery and general maintenance.
Other than just feeling fantastic, Sports massage offers both physiological and psychological benefits, both during and after your training runs and the big race or milestone itself.
Benefits include:
- Injury prevention – Regular maintenance massages help identify and subsequently treat tighter areas which may lead to injury.
- Faster recovery, improved tissue permeability and improved circulation – this can help your body to shift metabolic waste like lactic acid a little faster and speed up the arrival of fresh blood, oxygen, and nutrients to help heal the micro damage from your runs or strength training.
- Reduction in scar tissue – Collagen fibres can form haphazardly when left to their own devices, massage can improve muscle fibre alignment, helping muscles to contract optimally with more force and control, and decreasing areas of painful tension caused by hard training micro damage or previous injury such as an ankle sprain.
- Increased range of motion – helping to support your optimal stride length including, allowing your heal lift in the swing phase through flexion of the knees, and extension through the hip, knee, and ankle during the propulsion phase.
- Relives tension – helping reduce tension build up throughout the body through working with the nervous system to create relaxation within the tissues. This helps the muscles absorb energy on landing ready to propel you forwards for your next stride.
- Pain relief – reduction of tension, increased range of motion, improved circulation, and decreased tissue sensitivity, along with the production of endorphins add up to reduce pain.
- Reduce stress and anxiety – Sports massage can release endorphins and noradrenaline to help create relaxation and decrease levels of stress and anxiety.
So, when should you get treatment? During training for a longer event such a marathon, we would recommend a session once a month during the initial phase. As mileage starts to increase, so should your sessions to fortnightly to help your body cope with the increased demands of training. Having a treatment, the week before the big event is hugely beneficial helping to settle those pre-race jitters, flush through the recent high miles from the legs and put you in the best position to achieve, and finally make you feel like you are doing something during your taper, so you don’t get too frustrated.
Sports massage minimizes muscle soreness, enhances your body’s resilience to training stress, and reduces the risk of injuries. Prioritizing long-term muscle health through regular strengthening, massage, and self-care is crucial. Don’t wait until an injury puts you on side-lines as the cheer squad; invest consistently throughout your training to safeguard your long-term goals.