Sports Massage is designed to aid recovery from training and/or injury.

It is a treatment which helps alleviate the stress and tension which builds up in the body’s tissues during physical exercise.

Deep layers of muscle tissue are massaged using a variety of techniques, assisting the removal of built up lactic acid and treating soft tissue injuries.

Soft tissues are made up of many individual fibres called tissue cells. When these cells are put under stress, such as overload, emotional, occupational and postural, they are at risk of becoming injured.

When the fibres do become injured they are repaired by scar tissue. This can cause adhesions between fibres (referred to by many as knots) impairing the correct functioning of the muscle and eventually leading to muscle imbalance and pain.

These injuries often occur at microscopic level and take some time to develop before pain is felt.

The following techniques are used:

Soft Tissue Release (STR): stretches muscles, breaks adhesions between individual muscle fibres and realigns them in the correct position.

Muscle Energy Technique (MET): stretches, strengthens and breaks down scar tissue adhesions. This technique encourages a state of relaxation which allows the muscle to stretch beyond its current ability, however, does not allow flexibility beyond normal for that person.

Neuromuscular Technique (NMT): retrains the nervous system by nerve inhibition. This technique promotes a state of relaxation in the muscle fibres being treated, which has a knock on effect to the whole muscle. This reduces the level of muscle tension.

Connective Tissue Massage (CTM): breaks adhesions between the connective tissue (which surrounds every tissue structure in the body) and the tissue structures underlying so that they move freely and independently of one another.