Bowen Somatic  Therapy

Sports / Body Massage

What is Sports Massage (SM) for? Stating the obvious, moving beyond a basic body massage where the focus is usually relaxation, in Sports Massage there is usually an emphasis on physical recovery, either during training or post event or post injury. One of the primary differences between general Body Massage and Sports Massage is the repertoire or techniques used in Sports Massage, deep tissue work, lymph drainage, muscle energy techniques etc, are aimed at addressing  issues common to people undertaking all types of physical training’ running, gymnastics, dance, contact sports and martial arts. When people undertake any form of physical training their body will respond in a typical and predictable manner, even if we exclude injury, common side effects of training include muscle soreness, lost range of motion due to tension and general body fatigue. Sports Massage can help accelerate recovery during intense training or after competitive events. 

When Does An Athlete Need Sports Massage?

If the training is within their current physical capacity in terms of impact, endurance and effort then there will be little obvious impact upon the body. In this state the athlete could be described as “maintaining” or “detraining” i.e. holding fitness or slightly losing fitness. These periods of resting / maintaining allow the body to recover from preceding levels of exertion that brought the current level of fitness. The maintaining period is important in helping the body to avoid injuries.

So in this period of training, SM should not really need to be a regular activity, unless you have a persistent or permanent injury that has to be managed. That said a couple of SM sessions during the recovery phase can help to speed up the recovery, so the body is well set up for the next uptick in training.

Sports Massage becomes more valuable as the training intensity and frequency increases, one of the challenges faced by athletes and in particular amateur athletes, is maximising recovery. It’s often overlooked that the gain from training is obtained during the recovery phase, if you just keep adding training onto training without rest and recovery phases you can get away with it for a short while, but inevitably there will be a point at which your body fails. At best you’ll experience a fall off in performance but  quite possibly you’ll experience an injury.

Sports Massage can accelerate your recovery allowing you to maintain higher levels of training in your limited time allowance.

Each Sports Massage session is charged at £45.