By: Nickolas Garman, CMT

                Ever hear the term "sports massage" and wonder what makes it so special compared to "Swedish massage"?  Maybe you have heard of its existence, but you figured it's reserved solely for professional athletes. My goal is to give you a clearer picture of what sports massage entails, and show you how it's something that the average runner, yoga practicer or  "weekend warrior" can benefit from.

                Sports massage is a specialized field of massage that utilizes many techniques proven to be effective for a specific athlete base. In other words, a runner's session may look completely different from a football player's session. Also, the session may vary depending on the position played by the athlete. Having a core understanding of how the athlete uses their body is crucial to the effectiveness of the therapist. Because of this, most sport massage specialists (SMS) will focus only on a few sports in order to fully understand body mechanics and common injury sites. SolSpring has a team of therapists who focus on a variety of sports and have the capability to work with anyone. Sports massage is offered as maintenance, inter-event, post-event, and injury recovery. 

Most maintenance sessions include a variety of techniques including, but not limited to, Swedish massage, Myofascial release, neuromuscular techniques, and lots of stretching. Because sports massage is a highly active technique, the client is usually wearing shorts and a sports bra or tank top to eliminate draping concerns.  SMS will often utilize assessment techniques to find areas of weakness or tightness in the body, or may watch the athlete perform their activity to look for postural inefficiencies. From there the athlete and SMS can set goals together to work towards increasing flexibility, correct posture, reduce the chances of injury, along with reduction in general stress and muscle soreness from over-training. Sports massage is often described as a more invigorating session and leaves the client feeling as if they have just had a workout. Sessions typically last in the 25- to 50-minute range and are best utilized on a weekly or bi-weekly schedule, depending on the level of training and schedule.

Monthly massage is more appropriate for the "occasional" athlete, frequent exerciser, or for anyone wanting to improve posture and effectiveness at work.

                Inter- and post-event massage is done on-site at competitions. Studies have shown that massage is beneficial when added onto an effective recovery exercise routine, especially when the athlete's performances are more than 45-minutes apart. Post-event massage has also shown, when used in conjunction with regular maintenance massage, to significantly reduce delayed onset muscle soreness. Athletes should be cautious of therapists who tout pre-event massage because studies have shown that this may put the body into a relaxed state, which is counter-productive to increasing performance, though the benefit of reduced anxiety may have a role to play in improved focus.

                Injury recovery massage is done as a progressive treatment, beginning with reducing edema, then working to release "splinted" muscles, and helping in the laying of healthy scar tissue.  This reduces the chance to re-injure and may shorten recovery time.  This process isn't limited to sports injuries and can be very beneficial for the "average" individual who twisted an ankle or slipped and fell.

                If you have an interest in including sports massage in your training regimen, SolSpring offers free consults. During this half hour meeting, you and your SMS will discuss in more detail how this may look. We will also conduct a full body postural assessment to find areas that may need focus with massage or strengthening. SolSpring can also provide a more detailed presentation to your organization or sports team to discuss what we have to offer. 

                Nickolas Garman has been employed with SolSpring since 2006 and is  a 2006 graduate of the Institute for Massage Education at Kalamazoo Center for the Healing Arts.  He is also an instructor at IME, teaching various bodywork classes and Kinesiology. Nick has pursued further education in the fields of sports massage, orthopedic techniques, anatomy, physiology, and fitness to serve his clients more effectively.  He has a passion for working with football athletes, and also focuses with baseball/softball and swimming.