How Amateur Athletes Benefit from Massage

Sports massage involves using hands-on techniques to work on the muscles, ligaments, and tendons to improve circulation, reduce tension in the muscles, stimulate or suppress nerve activity and to enhance removal of waste in the body among others benefits. Despite its many benefits, most amateur athletes are yet to appreciate the importance of massage.

Exercising while playing sports can be strenuous. Take tennis as an example. Players have to do a lot of running in addition to the repetitive and forceful motions that the body must endure to master the forehands, serves, backhands and volleys. This places a lot of stress on the joints, muscles, and ligaments. Sports massage therapy will help to keep the players healthy not only during matches but as also during training and after the matches.

Increased Flexibilty: Massage can increase the motions in the torso and hands to enable a player to make powerful swings. It also eases pain and tightness in the neck and shoulder areas allowing one to remain focused on the ball especially during serves and swings. Besides this, the massage will relax the low back and hip muscles, thus increasing flexibility throughout the swing.

Prevent and Reduce the Extent of Injuries: Besides improving one's fitness, massage can also help to prevent and reduce the extent of injuries. The thought of getting injured is one of the most stressing fears for most athletes. Injuries are costly to treat, disturb training schedules, impair performance, and most of all they hurt the players. With this in mind, massage is beneficial to amateur players considering that they are at higher risk of getting injuries. The massage will help in relaxing the muscles and allowing them to recover before resuming. Common examples of these injuries are tennis and golfer's elbow and thrower's shoulder.

Speed Up Recovery Process: In the event of an injury, massage is used to speed up the recovery process. For instance, flag football players can experience groin or hamstring strain because of a sudden change of direction or stretch to reach for the ball. The massage session for a hamstring strain involves effleurage exercise to boost circulation and warm up the muscles.

Prevent Injuries: Apart from improving the recovery process, massage can also prevent injuries. Sports massage therapy helps to tone the muscles and increase blood circulation thus allowing for free movement of joints. By reducing recovery time and conditioning the body, massage will have also contributed to preventing further injuries during subsequent training sessions.

Help Prepare for Competition:When amateur athletes participate in continuous running or jogging, there is a forceful strain on the muscles and joints which can contribute to different forms of injuries. In this case, massage therapy will help in preparing the athletes for competition as well as helping them to recover after the game or exercise. Physiologically, massage contributes to reduce muscle tension, improve muscle tone, boost blood flow, and enhance movements around the joints.

Improved Performance: Another way in which amateur athletes can benefit from massage is improved performance. Massage has been found to boost flexibility which in turn enhances performance and reduce the risk of injury. Equally, going for a massage immediately after an exercise will yield better results than opting for natural recovery.

Prevent Muscle Fatigue: Sports massage can help to prevent delayed soreness. Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), according to the American College of Sports Medicine, usually starts to develop between 12 and 24 hours after finishing the exercise. It may create the deepest pain between 24 - 72 hours after the exercise. So, sports massage will help to stimulate lymph flow and blood circulation, thus preventing muscle fatigue.

Stress Management: One of the most overlooked benefits of massage is the management of stress. When a person undergoes a massage session, his or her body releases neurotransmitters referred to as endorphins, which are released by the hypothalamus and pituitary gland and acts as a natural pain reliever. Endorphins that are released as a result of a massage will go a long way in reducing anxiety, improving the mood, reducing pain, and enhancing the state of well-being of a person.

Regular massage sessions are healthy for the body, so it is no different for amateur athletes. Massage improves the body's resistance to pain and injury as well as boosting the body's immunity, strength, and overall stamina. It is, therefore, a necessity for any amateur athlete who wishes to perform at his or her best level.

Eugene Wood is a Licensed Massage Therapist located in Nassau County NY. Learn more about advanced massage therapy by visiting his website.