Sports Massage
Sports Massage
Sports massage is the management, manipulation and rehabilitation of muscles and other soft tissues. It is a specifically hands-on treatment aiding recovery in sports injuries, and general day-to-day issues.
For Appointments Please Call 0131 235 2354
Fiona McFadyen | Sports Massage Therapist + Physiotherapist
Edinburgh Sports + Spinal Physiotherapy offers sports massage for
- Injury prevention
- Maintenance
- Event recovery
- Performance enhancement
- Relaxation
Sports massage is the methodical manipulation of muscles and other soft tissues (ligaments and tendons), to help relieve discomfort and tension. Various techniques are used including
- Soft tissue release
- Myofascial release
- Frictions
- Stretching
- Joint mobilisations
As a discipline in its own right sports massage is becoming more recognised in the world of sports medicine. Sports massage can benefit elite athletes as well as the recreational sports enthusiast.
Who can benefit from sports massage?
The majority of our sports massage clients are active people who use sports massage to prevent injury, recover after an event, maintain their healthy lifestyle and fitness or enhance their performance. However, you do not necessarily need to be sporty to benefit from sports massage, as a number of our clients return regularly to help them relax and ease day to day tension that they experience.
The benefits of sports massage
- Reduced muscle tension, stiffness, pain and fatigue
- Improved flexibility and joint range of movement
- Better joint and body awareness
- Improve healing process and quality of soft tissue repair
Sports massage may help the body in many ways including:
- Stimulating blood flow and circulation
- Improving lymphatic drainage of soft tissues and peripheral joints
- Helping removal of metabolic waste
- Soft tissue and muscular stimulation to absorb oxygen and nutrients
- Assisting in tissue repair and remodeling the formation of collagen
Sports massage uses a number of techniques including:
Trigger point therapy
The body often reacts to different stresses such as overuse, adaptive shortening, postural imbalance, strains or sprains. Such reaction can cause the muscles and fascia to involuntarily spasm in localised points leading to pain and tension. These are commonly known as “knots” however in the medical world are referred to as trigger points. During your sports massage, trigger points maybe treated in order to “deactivate” and relax them, with the aim to
- Reduce localised and referral pain patterns
- Restore muscle imbalances
- Improve mobility of the joint
- Increase blood flow and circulation to the localised area
- Provide relaxation
- Help increase flexibility of the muscle
Soft Tissue Release
This is an advanced and excellent technique used in sports massage therapy. It combines the use of pressure, frictioning and stretching which may help
- Reduce adhesions in soft tissue structures
- Local circulation
- Increase range of movement of the joint and general functional movement
- Flexibility and mobility of taught muscles
Muscle Energy Techniques (MET)
METs are an advanced for of stretching adopted from Osteopaths. This method target the muscles and soft tissue however make an impact to the movement of the whole joint. The technique uses passive stretching and relaxation to help with flexibility. It also may help with the
- Release of spasm in muscles
- Reduction of muscle tone/tension decreases muscle hypertonicity (tension)
- Flexibility of muscles
- Restoration of muscle imbalance and functional movement
Frictions
Deep tissue friction is used to manipulate the healing of muscles, tendons and ligaments. This technique uses direct pressure over the soft tissue that manipulate their structure. The theory behind this technique is to
- Reduce congestion in the localised soft tissue
- Increase circulation to the area
- Reduce the effect of scar tissue following an injury
- Increase the mobility of the specific soft tissues
SPORTS MASSAGE TREATMENT FROM
Comely Bank Clinic
52 Learmonth Grove, Edinburgh, EH41BN
TESTIMONIALS
Richard is a top physio and knows exactly what he is speaking about! He was specific with information and able to identify my injury and gave me rest time and appropriate recovery exercises to get me playing rugby again asap! Would highly recommend him to anyone having problems! Mark
Excellent treatment and advice from a knowledgeable and professional physiotherapist. Adept at answering questions and addressing any concerns I had. I felt very involved with my treatment as my goals were taken into account and treatment was tailored to these. Would recommend to anyone in need of an excellent physiotherapist. Angus
“I worked with Richard at Edinburgh Sports and Spinal Physiotherapy when I was recovery from an ACL reconstruction. His knowledge and understanding is excellent. We worked together to put a detailed return to running plan specific to the hamstring graft that was taken during surgery. I would definitely recommend this clinic and Richard”.
“I have used other NHS and private physio services as well as chiropractors in the past without success and so came to Richard. Richard is a Physio who listens and understands your situation. After an initial assessment he will then organise a detailed treatment plan. I would highly recommend anyone with back pain to see him”.
“Richard was very welcoming and provided an excellent service. After only 2 visits he had managed to eliminate all discomfort and pain in my neck. He explained what was going on and used different techniques to get speedy results. I would definitely recommend Richard to anyone and everyone who is looking for a physiotherapist in Edinburgh!”