Sports & Remedial Massage

Sports & remedial massage is treatment modalities that manipulates, manages, and rehabilitates the soft tissues of the body including muscles, tendons and ligaments. Sports therapy it is appropriate not just to sports people, but to anyone wishing to guard against or recover from a soft tissue injury.

 

Reading only those two words (sports massage), I realise that you're dealing with a therapy where the techniques and the way massage is used has been specifically formulated for people dealing with all types of sports. Different Sports and Athletes have their own requirements and needs. Well, remedial massage techniques and principles utilised must achieve a specific goal when treating an athlete to meet the specific problem.

 

Having researched this subject I agree with Ylinen and Cash (1988) as more people today are becoming concerned about health and are leading more active lives. People of all ages and from all walks of life are taking up sport and discovering the benefits on physical, psychological and social levels.

 

If we want to understand what type of sports massage to apply we need to think about the vital specific principles, such as pre or post-event; during recovery or a maintenance period; or when an athlete suffers an injury that requires rehabilitation. Also injuries suffered by sportsmen do not differ from those in many other activities.

 

In conclusion as you can probably tell, understanding sports massage is never as simple as learning one technique. A sports massage therapist who understands the three key principles of sports massage should be able to apply the appropriate treatment at the appropriate time.