With the local footy season coming to an end and marathon season about to begin, our bodies are feeling a little under the weather and it’s time to for some much-needed R & R.

Remedial massage is a great way to take care of your body’s aches and pains. We are going to talk about some chronic conditions that benefit from massage, as well as the importance of maintenance massage and helping your body recover so you can get back to feeling your best!

It’s important that we begin training with a body that we are confident in, this means our body needs to be feeling its best to reduce the risk of injury in order to get the best out of it. Massage aims to reduce pain, increase range of motion and mobility, and generate blood flow to promote muscle recovery, whilst also allowing time to clear your mind and relax.

Chronic pain is something that is quite common in sports (or just in life), and often it’s really hard to manage pain and play sport. We often see sports people present with lower back and hip pain. There are many ways we can treat and manage these conditions. Through a thorough assessment we are able to source the root of the issue, which then helps us to treat accordingly. We can try techniques such as soft and deep tissue massage, stretching, trigger point therapy and provide a solid and structured treatment plan.

A treatment plan for sports conditions will involve tips and tricks to speed up recovery, some stretches and mobility exercise to take home (or to complete before and after sport) and regular massage sessions to check in and provide maintenance.

A study completed in 2016 on massage for pain management concluded that receiving massage is highly recommended as pain management and effectively treats pain. This study also showed reduced anxiety levels in participants after getting a massage, which is another benefit to managing pain and improving performance.

Overall, it’s super important that we listen to our bodies and seek the right treatments. We are stuck with this body forever, let’s take care of it!

References:

Crawford, C., Boyd, C., Paat, C. F., Price, A., Xenakis, L., Yang, E., Zhang, W., & Evidence for Massage Therapy (EMT) Working Group (2016). The Impact of Massage Therapy on Function in Pain Populations-A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials: Part I, Patients Experiencing Pain in the General Population. Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.), 17(7), 1353–1375. https://doi.org/10.1093/pm/pnw099