The Benefits of Athletic Massage

It should be no surprise that many athletes benefit from getting a massage since they use their muscles in a variety of intense ways. Although the average person might use the same muscle groups in their everyday activities, it is the athlete that benefits the most from keeping themselves in top shape and part of this conditioning involves massages.

The sports massage in particular serves several purposes. First off, it prevents injuries. Tense muscles are more likely to suffer injuries during any sporting event, but a massage can loosen the body up so that it can perform at a peak level. And these massages can also be helpful after the games are over to relieve any swelling that may have occurred. As well, sports massages in particular drain away fatigue and reduce muscle tension. Still, the main purpose of this type of massage is to reduce the tension in the soft tissues of the body.

Swedish Massage

Since there are so many different kinds of activities, there are many different kinds of massage therapies that are used as well. It's often up to the athlete to tailor the massage to the needs that arise from their respective sport. However one of the more traditional methods is a blend of the Swedish Massage and Shiatsu.

The massage known as Shiatsu is derived from the Japanese word meaning finger pressure, but this type of massage therapy includes the use of many other parts of the body like the thumbs and forearms as well to promote a general well being called the Ki.

There are several ways that modern sports have learned to take the best from older techniques that have been around for thousands of years and Shiatsu is just one of them. Most of the session takes place on a padded mat on the floor and they usually last anywhere from forty minutes to one hour.

Although these sessions can reduce quite a number of different conditions, they are especially beneficial to the athlete as just a few Shiatsu sessions have been known to stimulate several different systems the most important of which is the circulatory, and it has also been documented that they regulate the automonic nervous system. While this technique targets specific areas of the body, the Swedish Massage is much more general.

Detoxify The Muscles

The Swedish Massage is all about targeting a larger group of muscles and working all the motions involved with the flow of the blood to the heart. There are two main purposes to this massage. The first is to increase the oxygen in the blood and the second is to detoxify the muscles. This technique is somewhat similar to the Shiatsu, but it does differ in several important respects as there is a definite series of techniques that are practiced in the Swedish Massage. These include both passive and active movements like bending and other actions that are designed to create friction like rubbing the palms of the hands together or other kneading motions.

Of course there are the kinds of massages that are a little more mature in nature than the straight ahead sports massage, and these are generally called the adult massage. While the benefits for the athlete have never been well documented, there is certainly something to be said for the relaxation aspects of this type of massage but perhaps this one is something better left to the privacy of the athlete's off duty hours. At any rate the benefits of several different types of massages have been well documented as a way of improving athletes'performances in several different sports.

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