You will often hear fitness enthusiasts describe muscle soreness as “a good kind of pain”. While there is merit in that statement, several studies have shown that muscle soreness can have negative effects on the muscles during future workouts, sometimes even causing injury.
Sports massage is a form of massage geared towards optimizing muscle condition and ensuring muscle recovery. It is used by athletes to remain in peak condition despite rigorous training which makes it difficult to avoid wear and tear. It is also helpful in recovering from, as well as prevention of, sports-related injuries.
This is part of the reason why many sports teams and athletes now keep professional masseuses on their staff, so that they can receive regular post-workout rubdowns, which allow for faster recovery and leave you in better shape to train the following day.
Sports massage offers numerous benefits such as improved flexibility, reduced risk of injury and improving blood circulation to the areas of the body coming under the most stress.
There are three main categories of sports massage: pre-event, post-event and maintenance. To read more about the various kinds of sports massage and which type would be most beneficial for you, click here.
Sports massages help increase blood flow to the muscles, which helps the muscle recovery process and decreases Post-Workout Muscle Soreness, which is mainly caused by insufficient oxygen being available to the muscles. This, in turn, causes the muscles to use anaerobic means of generating energy through the breakdown of glucose and phosphates, which produces lactic acid as a byproduct.
One thing all athletes must keep in mind is that it is not advisable to get a sports massage within 48 hours of a sporting event. A sports massage after a sporting event, however, is an excellent idea as it aids in muscle recovery.
Make Yinyang a part of your training program! There are bulk packages that you can look into if you are looking to make massage a part of your training program.
