Tennis is an extremely high-impact sport that can cause muscle tightening and microtears in muscles, but regular sports massages can reduce these side effects and enhance performance.
No matter your level, adding massage therapy to your routine can make an enormous difference for both experienced and beginner tennis players alike. In this article we explore its impact on tennis injury recovery: 1. Increased flexibility.
Increased Blood Flow
A healthy circulatory system is critical to overall physical performance and peak athleticism; but especially so for athletes. Sports massage can enhance blood flow and oxygen supply to muscles, providing them with enough essential nutrients to promote recovery from training sessions and events, so athletes can perform at their optimal best on every training session or competition day.
Sports massage provides numerous health advantages beyond increased circulation, including improving flexibility and loosening tight, tense muscles. This can help prevent injury by decreasing the likelihood of muscles becoming damaged or overworked.
Sports massage can help prevent delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) by stimulating blood flow to muscles and encouraging its breakdown, known as lactic acid build-up after exercise and its accumulation into painful plaque. Studies show that using multiple massage techniques together, such as effleurage, percussion and cupping (a type of percussion massage where cups are used as suction cups against skin surface and stimulate muscles below), can significantly decrease DOMS by 48 hours post exercise and help break it down more efficiently.
As well as its physical advantages, sports massage can also bring soothing physical benefits such as improved sleep. This can be especially useful for individuals engaging in strenuous physical activities – as quality rest is an integral component of recovery and preparation for physical activity.
Implementing regular sports massage into your training regimen can greatly enhance performance on and off the tennis court. Many top athletes such as Olympic sprinter Allyson Felix and Olympian Lindsey Vonn have noted its benefits in staying fitter longer while recovering faster from athletic activities.
OriGym offers a Level 3 Certificate in Sports Massage Therapy course for anyone interested in learning to perform sports massage to help reduce tennis injury risk, and helps promote overall well-being. Find out more and reserve your seat now; our courses are held nationwide as well as online if needed; any queries? Don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Reduced Muscle Soreness
Sore muscles can become rigid and tight, restricting range of motion and slowing the distribution of nutrients and fluid around the tissue. Massage therapy can release these toxins while improving flexibility to speed recovery and avoid injury.
Muscle soreness is often caused by excess fluid accumulation and metabolic waste after exercise, so athletes often receive post-event sports massage to remove lactic acid and reduce muscle soreness. Even without an event taking place, this form of massage therapy can improve performance while alleviating fatigue by decreasing delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS).
Athletes typically get massages prior to competition to increase range of motion (ROM) and warm up their muscles, as well as during half time or between events to help reduce lactic acid accumulation, ease stiffness and assist with minor injuries – these sessions are known as inter-event or pre-event massage and generally last only briefly.
Communication between athletes and their massage therapist is vital to effective therapy sessions; openness allows their therapist to tailor pressure and techniques used specifically to each athlete, thereby meeting his or her individual needs and meeting recovery/performance objectives. Prompt communication also allows therapists to make adjustments during massage sessions as required.
Studies suggest that massage therapy can enhance performance by shortening the time required for muscle soreness to appear, improving range of motion (ROM), agility and improving ROM. Furthermore, massage may also decrease neutrophil emigration into tissue spaces which has been linked to increases in soreness and stiffness in muscles.17,18
However, further research must be conducted into both the direct effects of massage on sprint and endurance performances as well as its indirect effects on mood states and perceptions of recovery.
As with any form of bodywork, experiencing discomfort during a sports massage is normal and should be taken as part of the experience. Some pain may result from muscles being stretched in ways they’re not used to, while the remainder comes from blood rushing into tissues and flushing out toxins from them. It’s important to remain relaxed throughout and after your treatment.
Reduced Inflammation
Massage therapy has been proven to be highly effective at alleviating inflammation, likely by breaking up adhesions and stimulating blood flow. Adhesions are bands of scar tissue formed following injury or trauma and prevent normal movement of muscles, ligaments and tendons causing injury and pain. Sports massage breaks up these adhesions while increasing flexibility within muscles so the body can move more freely and efficiently.
Injurys to the musculoskeletal system will become less severe and recovery times will shorten due to increased blood flow, speeding delivery of nutrients directly to injured areas and flushing away waste products such as lactic acid from them. This will reduce muscle soreness while simultaneously increasing athletic performance.
Sports massage offers another important advantage, reducing swelling. This effect occurs as massage techniques such as kneading the muscles increase capillary and venous return, thus decreasing swelling and improving lymphatic drainage. A two-way communicative feedback system ensures that pressure applied is neither too great or too little, which could potentially cause damage or discomfort to tissues.
Many athletes recognize the value of regular sports massage as part of their training regimens, understanding it can improve performance and help them meet personal bests (PBs). But sports massage can also benefit amateur and casual athletes who participate solely for enjoyment or fitness purposes.
Sports massage is beneficial to all types of athletes because it increases muscle flexibility. Deep sports massage techniques such as friction and petrissage work on fascia compartments of muscles to release tension held there and restore their elasticity, improving this benefit for athletes from all disciplines.
A runner may experience muscle soreness from micro-tears and metabolic waste products accumulating in their muscles due to stress caused by running. Regular sports massage can help alleviate this soreness, and reduce its build-up in order to increase training frequency and meet goals more easily.
Relieved Stress
Sports massage can help relieve the mental strain associated with training. Furthermore, it may reduce injury risks and allow for higher performance levels.
Sports massage is not only effective at relieving muscle discomfort; it also can reduce lactic acid build-up and stimulate production of endorphins – natural pain-relievers which improve mood and boost energy levels, making this part of any workout regime an indispensable necessity.
Regular sports massage can help to protect against injuries by relaxing and reconditioning muscles, joints and ligaments; maintaining flexibility and range of motion; as well as aiding flexibility and maintaining range. When considering adding sports massage into your fitness program it is wise to consult a qualified Sports Massage Therapist as this can provide them with insight into your specific needs and goals; they can then create a tailored program specifically for you, whether amateur or professional athlete.
Sports massage techniques will vary depending on the type of massage desired; all techniques focus on relieving tight and tense areas in your joints, tendons and ligaments as well as muscles. A deep sports massage typically employs effleurage and petrissage techniques which relax muscle tension by light stroking of skin surface kneading techniques like effleurage. Effleurage softly strokes across skin surface for relaxation of muscles as it pinpoints trigger points or tender areas; petrissage involves light strokes on skin surface which increases circulation as well as breaks up muscular knots to treat delayed Onset Mus Soreness (DOMS).
Petrissage is a method of soft tissue manipulation designed to address soft tissues such as fascia and muscle. It involves performing repeated, circular movements using hands, fingers, and thumbs which break down adhesions while improving circulation and flexibility – also encouraging the formation of new connective tissue while helping remove toxins.
Find a massage therapist who specializes in sports and deep tissue massage for optimal results. They should have at least 300 hours of experience practicing their craft, along with studying anatomy, physiology and human anatomy as part of a course of study.