About Sports Massage

[chinghanlim]

I am going to be speaking with the fitness director at the university about working in the massage program at their gym. She said that the current therapist works alot with athletes who have specific needs.

My current client base is mostly relaxation and working on chronic tension or repetitive motion injury. I work slowly and deeply with lots of compression and stretching.

My question is, how would I work with athletes? I know that the techniques are basically the same, but used at specific times in their training.

Anyone here well versed on sports massage to give some pointers about what techniques to use and at what point?

I think mainly I would be dealing with runners, team sport players, golfers, and weight lifters.

Thanks for your knowledge!

 

[Mario (Backup)]

Knowing the ins and outs of their particular sport is important.
What bothers a runner may not bother a cyclist and vise versa.
Boning up on your sports therapy notes for review is a good idea.
Have a copy of Mattes AIS stretching.

I'm currently working on a golf protocol as I will be moving to the Golf Mecca of the east coast in the Fall and I want them as my niche(golfers).
Robyn

 

[Taufiqur]

Another good book is "Understanding Sports Massage" by Patricia Benjamin. It should be a good general application reference for you, since you already know the principles of massage and muscle action, direction and such.
It is sort of an all-around guide to Sports Massage, is probably pretty cheap on Amazon or E-bay, and you could probably skim through it fairly quickly.

Sorry I don't have much more info than that for you, but if you are not in a huge rush, this may work for you.

 

[Lance R]

so far all but two of my clients are athletes. i mainly see runners, cyclists, and triathletes. they ususally want me to spend all the time on glutes and legs. i like to do Origin to Insertion so i'm stretching the muscle while massaging it. it's much deeper too. i also do trigger point and stretching during the session.

 

[Eoin]

Thank you for your responses! I feel confident that I would be fine working with athletes. Perhaps having a few good reference books and I'd be good to go.

Thank you for the book recommendations, I've seen them listed in other posts too so they really must be a "must have."

jillith, org. to ins. very good info, thanks!

 

[Pompal 09.]

A couple of folks have asked me if I do "sports" massage. I said "you bet". My school didn't teach sports...or any other modality other than swedish. These were runners and bikers.

What is perceived as "sports" massage? Is it deep? Is it fast? Is it just aimed at specific parts?

I plan to look for that book, thanks for mentioning that! Maybe we need a section/subsection for books? update, Amazon for 3.49 used. Cheap enough!

 

[sgtslick321]

From what I could tell from my research, sports massage focuses on pre and post event and the massage would be different for those times. Pre event and athletes in training need massage that will stimulate their muscles and for post event they need massage that will help the muscles relax. And then which sport determines which muscles really need the most attention.

 

[Cecilia]

Okkkkkkk the lady yesterday is running a marathon on Sunday...

Hmmmmmm plantar fascitis in foot, knee troubles, hip pain? she needs a good mfr session!

 

[royalmeddy]

mick,

it is a really really great pre and post event massage video. https://ralphstephens.com/videos_3.php i had problems ordering it online, so i had to call them. good customer service. ralph is pretty dorky to watch, but it's good once you get past that. this is a good book if you are interested in massaging at bike races. http://www.vitessepress.com/catalog/massage.html

with runners be on the look out for PF, ITBS, tight calves, maybe some psoas/hip flexors, and VM issues. cyclists: quads are usually a wreck especially VM -always over developed, hip flexors, calves, traps, levator scap. i cycle and run so i'm familiar with the typical injury areas. i would say about 97-98% of my clients are athletes. it's rare i'm asked for a full body relaxation. i love this market and it's all i market to.

 

[Pompal 09.]

The only thing I really know about Sports Massage is that you don't want to do deep tissue (destabilizing) work or anything that will produce structural change within 5-6 days of a big event. People who have this kind of work done too close to events end up with more soreness and sometimes injury. Focus is on circulation, warming things up and general flexibility.

General deep tissue, vigorous swedish massage pre-event. Between events, focus is similar to any other therapeutic work, focusing on optimal performance of the major muscle systems used by that sport, as well as posture, balance and flexibility in general. This is the time to do deep structural work, scar and injury work, etc.

Post event is again circulatory, stretchiing, contract and release, etc, to ease recovery and help with tightening muscles.

I have yet to see anything that really defines "sports massage" consistently, and my gut feeling is that it is simply a tailored massage designed to address details of body mechanics and performance in a body that is already in reasonably good condition.

:? I don't think that was very helpful.... LOL! :

 

[IJR]

you don't want to do deep tissue (destabilizing) work or anything that will produce structural change within 5-6 days of a big event. People who have this kind of work done too close to events end up with more soreness and sometimes injury.

..yes, and add ...perhaps changing performance ie: length of stride, swing, pitch etc. which can throw an athlete off.

Robyn

 

[Ryskag]

This is a little more long-term, but . . . I keep reference binders of relevant massage-journal articles, and one section is all articles about specifics sports. So I've got an article archived about golfers, one on tennis, on rock-climbers, kayaking, hikers, swimming, running, triathlons, etc, you get the picture -- and it helps me a lot to review the relevant info that way.

 

[Gabriela Iris]

[quote="BreatheBodywork"
:? I don't think that was very helpful.... LOL! :[/quote]It reassures me that "sports massage" is just an arbitrary term used to describe what we already do to satisfy different customers. So yes, Thanks!!

 

[PAYET M]

with runners be on the look out for PF, ITBS, tight calves, maybe some psoas/hip flexors, and VM issues.

Agreed, esp with the psoas and look out for lower back issues in those runners too.

I was the elite runner therapist (those elite guys are the ones that are paid and flown in from around the world) for a major marathon this past year and had never worked on this highly competitive of runners in the past.

I was fortunate to work on top athletes from Belgium, Kenya, Russia, Poland, Germany, many from the US -- and even the winner (another Kenyan) was on my table pre-event. They basically all requested the same thing, which I found interesting (except for a gal from Poland who was very "stressed" and needed pure relaxation and one who had become "lame" a week prior and needed psoas work).

Here's what I learned, I worked on the athletes the day before the marathon. They all requested deep work on the lumbar, gluts, and hams. Many requested work on the traps, bilateral calves and feet. 2 specifically stated "no work" on the calves. It was two to one in timing of the work on the posterior to anterior aspects of the body. They definitely all new exactly what they needed and expected. They all requested "flushing techniques", sort of self-described as pushing the palms up and out as you work up the leg from the center of the muscular bands. This is quick and light work at the end of each massage.

I was told by one of the German athletes (now living in the US) that she gets ART regularly and that many of the runners living in the states also get ART (active release technique). She also commented that most people charge too much for the ART and it is hard to find someone in an acceptable price range (interesting comment that may be helpful to someone out there).

I have worked on many week-end warrior types and bodybuilders. These two groups usually like a lot of stretching techniques along with deeper work.

Hmmmm.... that's about it for my knowledge base. Not too much, but maybe helpful.

 

[Matija N]

pueppi,

i'm new to ART. i've done spine and taking lower extm in november. people always tell me how chiros do ART for 15 mins and that's it. i actually blend ART in with my massage appointments. i used it as part of my bag of tools. the other MT's i met that did ART do not. it's a totally seperate and shorter treatment. currently i spend 30-60 mins doing ART and charge the same as a massage treatment. usually after spending that long doing ART i don't have to see them 2-3 more times like you would with a shorter session. ART is more taxing on the hands, so maybe that's why others charge so much and do shorter treatments.