How You Can Find The Best Sports Massage Therapist In Your Area
How You Can Find The Best Sports Massage Therapist In Your Area
Blog Article
Combining Yoga With Sports Massage Therapy
Whether you're an athlete or just someone who likes to stay in shape, sports massage is a great way to keep your muscles healthy. While it may seem counterintuitive to get a massage before practicing yoga, it can be very beneficial.
Athletes can maximize performance by identifying and addressing muscle imbalances, tightness, and injury risk factors. The massage should be tailored to the athletes' needs and training goals.
Improved Circulation
In addition to improving flexibility and promoting relaxation, sports massage also boosts circulation. This is because it helps to release any tight muscles that are putting pressure on blood vessels, thus restricting blood flow. This can be particularly helpful for those who live a hectic lifestyle, such as many people in Clapham, Herne Hill and Kennington.
Regular yoga practice can improve the circulation of blood as well. This is because a number of yoga poses, known as asanas, encourage the smooth, steady flow of blood through the body. This in turn reduces the risk of clotting and improves the body’s ability to deliver oxygen to cells, thereby keeping them healthy.
Combining yoga and massage therapy is an effective way to enhance your performance and increase your recovery times. Yoga helps to prevent injury by targeting areas of tension and imbalance, while massage can help to reduce the build-up of lactic acid that causes muscle soreness.
Reduced Stress
Yoga is a great way to reduce stress, but pairing it with massage therapy helps to relax the mind and body even further. The breathing exercises of yoga, combined with the soothing effects of massage, can help to improve sleep and relieve tension that often leads to chronic stress.
The reduction of lactic acid buildup post-exercise, thanks to the massage, further aids muscle recovery and accelerates the healing process. The combination of yoga and massage also helps to boost the immune system and protect against illness.
Studies have shown that regular yoga practice significantly reduced self-reported levels of stress. Yoga is effective at reducing stress because it increases mindfulness, spiritual well-being, and interoceptive awareness, which all contribute to decreased levels of psychological stress perception and reactivity.
Better Sleep
While incorporating yoga into your daily routine can be very beneficial for both your physical and emotional health, combining it with massage therapy can help you get even more out of your practice. By reducing tension, increasing relaxation and body awareness, and improving flexibility, you can experience improved energy levels and sleep quality.
Massage can have profound effects on the autonomic nervous system, promoting a shift towards the parasympathetic (“rest and digest”) state that enhances sleep quality. Research published in the Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies also shows that massage can improve sleep by reducing stress levels, which can interfere with a restful night’s sleep.
While there is a growing body of evidence that yoga may improve insomnia and sleep quality impairment, few randomized clinical trials have been conducted on this topic. Additionally, in many of the studies that have been published, the format and components of the yoga program were not described and details on participant attendance, compliance and attrition were not provided.
Increased Flexibility
Flexibility is a key component of athletic performance. Tight muscles can increase the risk of injury and decrease comfort during workouts, so it is important to stretch regularly. Flexibility also helps reduce muscle tension, improves sleep quality and promotes mental and emotional balance.
Studies have shown that regular yoga practice can help increase flexibility. In one study, 26 male college athletes were divided into a yoga group and a control group. The yoga group practiced twice a week for 10 weeks and role of sports massage in physiotherapy the researchers found that they had “significant increases in hamstring flexibility.”
Athletes who participate in sports that require repetitive movements like basketball, running, or weight lifting can benefit from sports massage therapy. In addition to reducing pain and soreness, sports massage can also accelerate recovery. It speeds up the removal of lactic acid and other metabolic waste from the body, promotes tissue repair and restores balance to the body, which helps athletes bounce back faster from intense training sessions and competitions.