Is Sports Massage Effective?

Mind and Matter

Massage directly engages both mind and body, affecting an individual’s performance and injury prevention on both a physical and psychological level. Performance, healing and injury prevention are indisputably dependent on both physical and psychological factors for any athlete. Yet the psychological aspect of treatment is often overlooked. 

Regularity and Trust

Many research papers that set out for empirical evidence for massage, neglect important factors. Challenging to quantify and measure, these include; the quality of therapist-client relationship/rapport, accuracy of the consultation process, the client’s exposure to treatments, regularity/frequency of treatments, and the suitability of techniques used with respect of the client’s unique situation, aims and goals. 

Credibility of Sports Massage

We know that there is merit - massage has been in use to assist athletes since antiquity. In the West today sports massage continues to grow in popularity, particularly among the sporting elite. Physiotherapists and osteopaths use massage and physical manipulation as one of their main modalities of both analysis and treatment. However - the importance of a healthy therapist-client relationship cannot be underestimated - as this will affect the outcome of treatments potentially more than the techniques used.

Regular treatments with a trusted sports massage therapist has been shown to assist the client in:

• developing body awareness - crucial for any sports person to understand their physical challenges
• aiding relaxation - time out to unwind, necessary for the body's healing and mending
• healing malfunctioning tissues of the body - improving ease of movement and reducing pain

Muscle and connective tissue can become shortened pathologically

This is often a response to stress - a protective mechanism that unfortunately leads to pain and dysfunction, inhibiting the process of proper healing, recovery, and subsequent performance. Excessive contracting / hardening / thickening of these tissues due to stress or injury has an inhibitory effect of the ease of the organism as a whole. A person’s ease of movement is easily compromised by such developments and massage is an intervention for release. 

As Clay & Pounds describe in their book Basic Clinical Massage Therapy (2003):

“Although the therapist’s sense of release in soft tissue is a subjectively experienced phenomenon that is difficult to describe, it is difficult to miss when you do feel it, and it is a very gratifying feeling for therapist and client alike”.

Soft Tissues of the Body Respond to Touch 

With skill and care, this response can be one of healing. Many athletes find Sports Massage Therapy indispensable for their training and performance, but most asked place importance on finding the ‘right’ therapist.

Many current studies in Sports Massage Therapy lack validity due to their methodology. Sports Massage Therapy is more than the sum of its mechanical parts. Future research must strive to take into account the dynamic, holistic nature of healing. Anyone interested in exploring the benefits of sports massage therapy would do well to try a variety of therapists before settling with one with whom they feel most comfortable.










Copyright Phoebe Riordan - Massage Therapist Cornwall, UK Phoebe runs a lively massage therapy business in Cornwall. For more info go to www.phoebemaria.com