Massage Therapy: A Secret Weapon?

Massage Therapy: A Secret Weapon?

— Greg Watterson, LMT, Director of Massage Therapy

From tennis players to road racers, elite triathletes to weekend warriors, the latest and most astute sports science indicates that one secret weapon should be part of your wellness and fitness routines: massage therapy.

Here are three key benefits of massage that can keep you healthy, happy, and in the game:

• Maximized Recovery. Your body’s need for nutrients and life-giving elements is critically tested during workouts and performances. You also need to remove metabolic waste and oxidative stress. Both are a function of circulation and your body’s sense of recovery. Your circulatory system works hard to detoxify and support the body. During workouts and physical exertion, this detoxifying needs to happen efficiently. Massage therapy supports and enhances this system, helping your body to act as an effective mechanism for removal of physiological stress, while also conditioning you to move vital elements such as oxygen, red blood cells and electrolytes to areas of need—and quickly! Efficient performance translates into better recovery. With massage, you’ll appreciate the difference of improved recovery.
• Increased Flexibility & Range of Motion. When you work out, you are contracting your muscles. Those same muscles, after sustained, intense shortening, have an inherent need for lengthening. Strenuous training can tax muscles, leaving them ‘heavy’ and tight, restricting movement and causing pain. Massage therapy changes this, by altering the ‘character’ of tight muscles. Massage stretches tissues such as the sheath or fascia that surround the muscle. This releases tension and pressure. It also breaks down scar tissue that may be the result of previous injuries or trauma. If you want the best from your muscles, employ massage to lengthen and renew them. This can reduce muscle pain. As I often say, “a healthy muscle is not just a strong muscle, but a long muscle.”
• Stress Reduction and Mental State. Perhaps the greatest benefit from massage for the active person is the one that’s all-too-often overlooked:  the reduction of tension and stress. Massage can improve your performance, and even your life, by enhancing your mental state—that is a priceless benefit! By helping you rid yourself of toxic, burdensome stressors, massage will reduce your stress levels revitalize your mental health.