There’s no denying that a good massage feels great, but it can also offer a number of physiological and psychological benefits after your training sessions, and after the main event itself.

Here are 10 ways that your body can benefit from a sports massage:

1. Massage relaxes tense muscles and removes adhesions and minor scar tissue between muscles and the surrounding fascia. This is important as tension and adhesions can impair your range of motion, leading to abnormal movement patterns that can cause overuse injuries.
2. It increases flexibility and reduces muscle pain and soreness after a training run.
3. It aids circulation, helping to remove metabolic waste products from your exercised muscles.
4. It enhances tissue permeability, allowing oxygen and nutrients to reach your muscle cells faster and remove waste products.
5. It aids the break down of scar tissue. It can optimise your muscle fibres orientation following muscle remodelling and hard training periods.
6. Regular maintenance massages are a great way to maintain overall muscle health and to identify any problem areas before injuries occur.
7. Deep tissue massage can reduce and relieve muscle tensions, getting to the areas that are tricky to reach using your own foam roller.
8. Relaxation, an often overlooked aspect of training! Sports massage calms both body and mind allowing you to reenergise, relax and rebuild the confidence to prepare for your next run. It’s a great way to take a break from your gruelling training schedule and a much-needed excuse to just relax for an hour.
9. Having a lighter, Swedish relaxation massage 2-3 days before your marathon can decrease any pre-race anxiety and help you to optimise your performance.
10. Booking a post-race sports massage 1-3 days after is not only something to look forward to while you’re pounding the streets, it will also help you recover more quickly.

In short, Sports massage speeds up the healing process in your soft tissues and rebalances your musculoskeletal system, allowing you to avoid injury, optimise your training and maximise your performance!

If you would like to incorporate massage therapy into your marathon training, or book in a pre-race or post-race massage to help you relax and recover, contact me to book an appointment.

https://bmjopensem.bmj.com/content/6/1/e000614/?
https://today.uic.edu/massage-therapy-improves-circulation-alleviates-muscle-sorenessint_source=trendmd&int_medium=cpc&int_campaign=usage-042019
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20543728/