The benefits of massage are now well-known: studies have shown that it can help improve your physical and mental health, boost your mood, reduce stress, and more. But did you know there's a connection between sports massage and performance?
Let’s explore the benefits of massage on athletic performance as well as its effectiveness in helping to increase agility, speed, power, strength, and endurance.
An Overview of the Benefits of Massage
Massage is beneficial for many reasons, including improved mental health. One of the most apparent benefits of massage is improving mental health. This can range from mild to intense, depending on the person receiving the massage and the partner providing it.
Massage may also help relieve stress and improve sleep, reducing the risk of several conditions, such as high blood pressure, depression, and ADHD. Reduced Inflammation - The increased circulation of blood and oxygenation resulting from massage can help reduce inflammation in the body. Inflammation is linked to several health conditions, including chronic pain, autoimmune disorders, and certain cancers.
Enhanced Athletic Performance - If your goal is to improve your athletic performance, massage is one of the best tools to achieve this goal. Athletes who have improved their performance have been shown to improve their agility, speed, power, strength, and endurance after receiving a massage.
How Massage Can Increase Athletic Performance
Massage can help improve your athletic performance in a few different ways, including:
Aerobic Power - Intense and focused muscle contractions like those that produce power help us run, swim, and bike at a high level. You know power's important if you have trained for any endurance sport. Exercises that increase your levels of aerobic capacity can help you run or play a sport for more extended periods with less fatigue.
Anaerobic Power - Anaerobic power, or the ability to generate force for short periods without oxygen, is essential for sports such as basketball, soccer, and football. High-intensity exercises like jumping and plyometric drills can help develop your anaerobic power, as can massage.
What You Need to Know Before You Book an appointment
While many believe that massage can boost athletic performance and improve muscle flexibility by "getting the blood flowing," this isn't always the case. In fact, several factors are thought to contribute to increased performance, including gaining strength and improving technique.
Though massage can help increase blood flow and flexibility, it's not necessary to improve athletic performance to receive a good massage. Instead, massage is more effective as a recovery tool to help the body regain strength and flexibility after being physically active. To reap the benefits of massage, you and the massage therapist should be physically active before your appointment to increase the concentration of natural endorphins in your body. Busy people tend to have endorphins at a higher concentration than those who are more sedentary.
How to Achieve a Successful Massage Session
Suppose you want to reap the benefits of massage on athletic performance. In that case, it's essential to follow a few tips before your session. They include: - Ensure the therapist is trained - Allowing someone who isn't trained to give you a massage could lead to several problems. Not only could you receive poor treatment, but you could also put yourself at risk of injury.
Make sure the person who will be giving you the massage is a licensed therapist who has been trained to do so.
- Book your session early: Massage benefits are cumulative with any physical activity. That is to say, each session you receive will help to increase your performance. So, it's essential to receive a massage often to reap the benefits. It's also important to book your massage session early.
- Give yourself time to recover: Just like with training, you need to give your body enough time to fully recover after receiving a massage. Otherwise, you could put yourself at risk of injury and hinder your athletic performance. So, try to schedule your massage session during a time when you know you can allow yourself to fully recover afterward.
The benefits of massage are now well known, including improved physical and mental health, reduced inflammation, and enhanced athletic performance. One way that massage can increase athletic performance is by increasing blood flow and improving flexibility. This article will help you understand how to reap these benefits during a massage session.