When we hear the word massage, we may assume that it’s something that we get from luxury spa. However, proper massage may become an important part of your athletic training regimen. Massage isn’t only useful for easing tired muscles and joints, but can also boost performance and prevent injuries. Massages could provide athletes with an additional competitive edge. In fact, massages can be enough to treat minor injuries and swelling. When you perform repeated movements, such as cycling, marathon running, swimming, hiking, basketball, football, strength training and tennis, then you may get great benefits from a massage. You should integrate massage to any conditioning or training program. When you experience soreness and stiffness, then it’s time to get a massage.

Sports massage is essentially a combination of various massage techniques that can help to improve any affected muscle groups, depending on your athletic activities. Before a competitive event, you can get a light massage treatment to flush your system, reduce pain from recent training session and make your muscles more relaxed. If you have a specific problem, you may need to get deep tissue work. It means that connective tissue and deeper layers of muscles will need to be realigned. This is recommended for people who have constant pain.

There are different people who can get massage treatment, including athletes during their off-season period or those who want to cross train. After a massage session, your body will feel re-energized and more flexible. You may address irritating pains and aches. The possibility of injuries can be reduced as well.

One of the goals is to assist you joints, tendons and other muscle groups, so they can have a better range of motion and you will be in an optimum shape. Massages also make your muscles more pliable and you can warm up joints better before doing various strenuous activities. Injuries are typically caused by muscle overuses. When your muscles are overused, you will experience inflammation, pain and soreness. When you have regular and schedule sports massage, the risk of overuse injuries can be reduced. If you have injuries in the past, recurrence will be less likely to happen. The frequency of sport massages could depend on how active you are, type of your sports and the intensity of the training. As an example, an amateur athlete could get two sessions of sports massages a week, while professional athletes could get three or four sessions. For weekend warriors, having four massage sessions a month should be enough, because their training activity is not as intense as amateur or professional athletes.

People respond to massage sessions in a different way. So, if it seems that you don’t respond too well, then you may get a massage session at different times. So, you can choose a massage method that works well for you. Massage can be included in the maintenance program. Pre-event massages should help to properly stimulate your muscles, so they will perform better. Post-event massage sessions can help to improve the process of recovery.