Sports massage uses massage techniques that are modified—but still very similar to traditional Swedish massage—to address the effects of exercise on the body with regards to training, game-time performance, and healing from injury.
With constant training and little time to rest, recovery from training sessions can sometimes be difficult. What sports massage can do is help decrease the body’s recovery time from training workouts. For instance, after a hard training session, it is not uncommon for the body to experience stiffness or tightness in the muscles for the next couple of days after their workout. It is believed that this stiffness and tightness is caused by microtears to the muscle fibers. A simple massage immediately after the workout, coupled with some stretching, can help manage the stiffness and tightness that is experienced after workouts. What massage does is that it helps improve blood circulation and relaxes the muscles that are being worked on. Massage helps to reduce the already heightened tone of the muscle to a more normal level.
Aside from recovery from workouts, sports massage can also prepare the mind and body for workouts and competitions. In this situation, the massage is quick, brisk, and is performed just before a major competition or practice. It can serve as a passive way to warm up. The massage usually lasts no longer than 15 minutes. No oil is necessary and the therapist uses brisk techniques, muscle squeezing, and rhythmic joint movements to prepare the body for the demands of the workout or competition. The main goal of the massage in this situation is to warm-up the body by improving blood circulation to the working muscles, loosen the joints, and to increase the arousal levels of the nervous system to a more heightened state. This is all done to prepare the body of the athlete to deal with the demands of the sport in which they are to engage in and to avoid injuries.
All athletes will suffer some sort of injury during their athletic endeavors. Depending on the injury, sports massage can help athletes recover faster from their injuries and get them back to their sport in a timely fashion. Just about all soft tissue injuries such as muscle strains, sprains, contusions, and tendonitis, can be treated with sports massage.