Not Just for Athletes: Four Ways a Sports Massage Can Benefit You

Both novice and professional athletes alike often make sports massages a part of their routine to enhance their athletic performance, reduce their chances of injury, and help them recover faster from potential sprains.

However, being an athlete is not a requirement to benefit from a sports massage. This style of massage therapy in Vancouver is readily available to anyone who seeks it out.

Sports massages can help positively impact a person’s mental and physical health in more than one way. Here is a look at a few of the benefits of receiving a sports massage regularly.

Pain Relief

Chronic muscle pain, tension, or soreness can make doing everyday tasks frustrating and difficult. Besides the physical restrictions and limitations, the mental stress of not accomplishing usually easy tasks (such as bending down or even walking) can weigh on a person.

Receiving a semi-regular sports massage can help relieve pain, ease muscle tension, promote blood circulation, and even trigger the release of endorphins, which can act as a natural painkiller.

Improves Posture

Unfortunately, it is very easy for anyone to fall into having bad posture, especially if you’re spending an eight-hour day at a desk for work or schooling. When we hunch, slump, or lean for long periods of time, our muscles can begin to both shorten and elongate, creating strain in different areas of our body. 

Sports massages are able to help relax muscles and improve movements within the joints of the affected areas, helping to counteract the negative results of bad posture. This is done by applying various pressure levels to the areas containing soft tissue and stimulating blood flow to increase the muscles’ temperature. Muscles with increased temperature have more flexibility, feel less pain, and have a wider range of motion.

Better Sleep

Rest is vital to a person’s physical and mental wellbeing and is essential to recovering faster from any ailments like injuries or illness. However, getting proper sleep is not always as easy as it sounds.

Pain, stress, illness, and more can all lead to a person having difficulties sleeping and even lead to suffering from chronic insomnia.

Massage therapy helps lower heart rate, anxiety blood pressure and increase blood circulation, contributing to better and more restful sleep.

Good for the Mind

Receiving regular sports massage isn’t just good for your muscles but your phycological health as well.

As previously mentioned, massage therapy can also trigger the release of feel-good endorphins known as serotonin, which can help reduce anxiety, depression, and irritability.

Combining the above with the physical benefits like increased blood flow can also help relieve sluggishness and fatigue that can come alongside when one is having an anxious or depressive period. It is important to note that while massage therapy can help alleviate some of the negative symptoms that come with these conditions, it is not a substitute for actual mental health therapy.

In Conclusion

Whether it is for better sleep, straighter posture, pain relief, or contributing to better mental health, almost anyone can benefit from seeking sports massage therapy.