Sports Massage

Our sports massage therapist Sarahjane Prince is a member of the Sports Massage Association and specializes in soft tissue injuries. Sports massage treats many forms of day to day problems such as muscle sprains and repetitive strain injuries. Working closely with osteopaths ensures that we can offer a more specific, patient centred and holistic approach.

What is Sports Massage?

Sports massage is the management, manipulation and rehabilitation of the soft tissues of the body. Soft tissues include muscles, tendons, ligaments and fascia. It is not necessary to take part in sports to benefit from a sports massage. A sports massage can help relieve day to day problems, such as repetitive strain injuries, sprains, tension and fatigue that everyone experiences. Sports massage may also assist with preventative treatment and injury recovery. However if you participate in sports at any level, a sports massage can help with:

• The conditioning/training phrase
• Pre-competition preparation
• Inter-competition preparation
• Post-competition recovery
• Post travel recovery
• Injury prevention
• Injury recovery

What to expect

On the first visit a case history will be taken. The client will then be asked about their symptoms, medical history and desired treatment outcome. This enables our massage therapists to tailor each session to the client’s individual needs and enables a suitable treatment plan to be devised. The first appointment lasts approximately 1½ hours, second and subsequent appointments last 1 hour.
Initially a visual assessment will be made and if appropriate functional tests will be carried out to help diagnose the symptoms. Typically, the patient lies on the treatment table in either loose-fitting clothing or partly undressed (covered with towels). Many techniques will be used during a sports massage and the practitioner uses oil, lotion, massage wax or talcum powder to reduce friction on the skin. All the products used are organic and of the highest quality available.

What training do Massage Therapists have and are they safe to treat me and my family?

Our massage therapist Sarahjane Prince is a member of the Sports Massage Association (SMA). The SMA ensures that you receive an individually tailored, high quality massage and as a member, Sarahjane must abide by a strict code of conduct. The SMA trains their therapists to identify conditions where it would be ill-advised or detrimental to receive treatment. This allows them to asses each client individually and be able to offer advise on the most beneficial treatment, even if this means treatment with an alternative health care professional.

Benefits

• Encourages a feeling of well being
• Assist in mental preparation for sporting participation
• Improve muscle tone
• Increase or decrease muscle length
• Improved circulation and lymphatic flow
• Assists in the removal of metabolic waste
• Sedate or stimulate nerve endings
• Reduce scar tissue