What comes to mind when you think if Sports Massage? Common thoughts are that
you’re going to be pummeled to the edge of screaming in pain, twisted like a pretzel
and to leave feeling as if you’ve been hit by a bus. Yes, we’ve all been there and the
“No pain, no gain” mantra has definitely been adopted as a belief of getting better
results out of a treatment.
I’m here to offer you a different perspective, which myself and other therapists are
adopting.
Sports Massage Therapy works with the soft tissues of the body; your muscles,
tendons, ligaments and fascia. People seek SMT for a number of reasons and not
exclusively relating to sporting activities. SMT is effective for injury prevention, injury
recovery, to improve mobility, efficiency and function within movement and body
maintenance. Sports massage uses a range of specialised techniques; Effleurage
(gliding strokes), petrissage (kneading movements) active and passive stretching,
trigger point work, muscle energy techniques and soft tissue release. You might like
to ask your therapist the techniques they’re using.
You possibly think that battering a muscle, like Paul Hollywood vigorously kneading
bread or a professional wrestler jumping off the ropes and ramming an elbow into
your bum cheek is going to get the best results.
Repeat after me “The nervous system controls the muscles.” The muscles cannot
think for themselves. For you to experience the world information enters your system
through your five senses, vision, smell, touch, taste and sound. This information
makes its way through the nervous system to the brain, the brain will understand and
interpret the information and then send messages back out for a reaction in the body.
Reactions of tension in the body are normal when it occurs for example to move
muscles or to help us to withstand the effects of gravity. Other tension can occur in
our bodies when the nervous system is responding to stress, danger, potential
danger, injury or habitual movements or postures. Tension in the body can be
momentary or be held in our systems for months, years even decades.
You get cut up by another car on the road, your body tenses as you brace for
potential impact. Once you are out of danger you take a sigh of relief and the tension
can release from your system and you can carry on with your journey.
You have a stressful job, the workload is overwhelming. The thought of work, going
into work and being in work fill you with dread. You sit down all day at your desk, you
take the long commute and have no time to exercise. You may hold the effects of this
stress in your muscles without you knowing.
The grief, sadness and shock of a break up or bereavement may be held as tension
and restriction in your body. Holding tension is effort. It’s tiring and draining and lead to poor physical and emotional health. Tension is not necessarily a bad thing, it’s a natural protective
mechanism, but this can be detrimental if it’s held long term. We need to let the nervous system know that we’re safe and in safety the nervous system will tell the muscles to relax.
As a massage therapist I am always mindful of creating a sense of safety. This
comes from a warm welcome, inviting you into a calm and relaxed space, chatting
during a case history, communication of your needs and my intentions, cosy blankets
and a sensitive touch. If I was abrupt, the room was cold and noisy, I expected you to
lay with no blanket on and talked to loud you may feel uncomfortable, you may not
trust me and it might lead to you tensing up.
As you feel safe, as your internal systems start to relax- slower heart rate and
breathing and your thoughts slow down the muscles will naturally start to relax.
Unsafe is like digging your fingers into a brick. If there’s an issue you’re never going
to find it. It’s going to take a lot of effort to get past the top surface and there’s likely
to be an injury. Safe is like your fingers slowly sinking into soft putty. As you sink
through it’s much easier to identify the injuries, restrictions and strains within the soft
tissues. We can then work on these to restore function and encourage healing. The
nervous system connects EVERTHING within us. An ache or pain is affecting
EVERYTHING within you, so releasing tension will in turn affect EVERYTHING.
You can’t sleep because of back pain, you need energy to stay awake so eat sugar,
this increases your heart rate, your body thinks you’re panicking, your breathing
becomes shallow, you’re short tempered. Yep…you get the picture.
We are all working at and often beyond our limits physically and emotionally. Why
would we then go and want to be attacked by another aggressive force. Be kind to
yourself and you can soften. When everyone is wanting things from you take a
chance to let someone be kind to your body and mind. Rather than digging our
hands in and telling your body what it should be doing, we’re sensitively feeling,
listening and reacting to the tissues. I could have an intention of “Your body should
do this,” but your nervous system may not be ready for that. In those instances,
maybe you do not feel a benefit, maybe it’s fine for a day, but then the problem
returns. If you’re focused on one muscle, rather than the whole system the muscle’s
like “phew that’s better,” but then turns around to sees the chaos behind it and gets
swept back in.
Responding to the body, working at a pace and intensity that is safe will allow and
give time for the nervous system to adapt and retain the patterns, working towards
optimal health and function.
Lets start “No pain brings all the gain.”