Healing and recovery are part and parcel of a sports person’s life, and this is where the importance of sports massage enters into the picture.
The benefits of sports massage are numerous, particularly for athletes, runners, and weightlifters, and those focused on recovery. Not only does sports massage offer physical benefits, but it also has many benefits for your mental health.
From helping enhance performance, prevent injury, or accelerate healing, sports massage techniques can support optimal body function and well-being. Here is everything you need to know about the benefits of sports massage.
What is Sports Massage?
Sports massage is a specialized massage therapy that helps prepare the body of an athlete for athletic activity, enhances performance, aids recovery, and prevents injuries.
Sports massage involves various techniques that are tailored to meet the needs of an individual’s sport or physical demands. A research study where patients with subacute low back pain were treated by massage found that there was significant improvement in function, and they also reported less pain.
General Benefits of Sports Massage
Sports massage provides several general benefits that support overall physical health and performance. This is in addition to the benefits it provides in an athletic setting.
Improves Blood Circulation
One of the most important benefits of sports massage is that it helps improve blood circulation in our body. With this benefit comes several other benefits.
- Sports massage stimulates blood flow, helping deliver more oxygen and nutrients to muscles. This supports muscle performance and recovery.
- Sports massage helps promote the removal of metabolic waste like lactic acid from the body. This helps reduce any soreness and speeds up muscle repair.
- With the increased circulation, micro-injuries and inflammation heal quickly.
- Enhanced blood circulation also helps boost optimal muscle temperature. This, in turn, reduces the risk of cramps and stiffness during activity.
Reduces Muscle Tension and Knots
Sports massage is also known to considerably help in reducing muscle knots and muscle tension.
- Sports massage targets deep layers of muscle tissue, helping even chronically tight muscles relax.
- It also targets easing stiffness and improving flexibility.
- Restores normal muscle function by applying focused pressure to trigger points or knots and helping break them down
- This also helps improve joint mobility, which can prevent injuries and improve performance.
Enhances Flexibility and Range of Motion
Sports massage helps improve muscle flexibility and range of motion. It does this by
- Stretching and loosening muscle tissue, promoting greater flexibility and reducing stiffness.
- Relieving tension around joints, improving the ease and extent of movement, is crucial for athletic performance.
Promotes Faster Muscle Recovery
Recovery is a crucial aspect of any individual’s life, and more so for athletes. Sports massages help
- Improve blood flow, which delivers nutrients and oxygen to fatigued muscles. This speeds up the recovery process.
- Help remove metabolic waste like lactic acid, reducing soreness and preventing delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS).
- Reduce inflammation in overworked tissues, supporting quicker repair by using techniques like effleurage and petrissage.
Renowned sports massage therapist Benny Vaughn emphasizes that massage, when done consistently, can help athletes “bounce back faster from training”. This is because sports massage helps in restoring muscle balance and reducing stress on soft tissue.
Reduces Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS)
DOMS or Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness is an issue faced by most active individuals. Sports massage can help tremendously in many ways.
- Sports massage has been shown to lessen the severity of DOMS as it helps ease muscle inflammation and microtraumas.
- The enhanced blood flow helps clear lactic acid and waste products that contribute to soreness.
- Sports massage helps loosen tight muscle fibers, improving mobility and reducing the stiffness usually felt 24–72 hours after intense physical activity.
- An analysis in Frontiers in Physiology wrote that massage seems to be the most effective method for reducing DOMS.
Helps Prevent Injuries
Sports massage can play a major role in helping prevent injuries. It does this by
- Identifying and correcting muscle imbalances or tightness.
- Keeping the muscles and connective tissues flexible reduces the risk of strains, tears, and sprains.
- Helping athletes become more aware of sensitive or overworked areas, allowing for timely adjustments in training.
Alleviates Stress and Anxiety
Apart from the physiological benefits, sports massage also helps with better overall mental health. Sports massage
- Helps reduce cortisol or the stress hormone levels, promoting a calmer mental state.
- Increases the release of serotonin and dopamine, helping improve mood and reduce anxiety.
Tiffany Field, PhD, at the Touch Research Institute, University of Miami, has written that massage can “stimulate pressure receptors that lead to a reduction in stress responses,”. This makes it an effective tool for emotional regulation in athletes.
Improves Sleep Quality
With less anxiety and stress, sports massage also ushers in the possibility of improving sleep quality. Some other aspects that improve sleep quality include:
- Relief from physical tension, which helps the body transition into restful sleep more easily.
- Increased production of serotonin, which the body converts to melatonin, a hormone critical for regulating sleep cycles.
Boosts Lymphatic Drainage and Detoxification
Another benefit of sports massage is its ability to help detoxify the body by boosting lymphatic drainage.
- Sports massage promotes movement of lymph fluid, helping clear waste products and toxins from the body.
- It also improves lymphatic circulation, further helping decrease fluid retention and localized swelling, particularly after intense physical activity.
- The massage also helps immune responses, which helps athletes stay healthier and recover faster.
Functional movement specialist, Dr. Perry Nickelston, highlights that targeted massage techniques like lymphatic drainage “optimize detox and cellular recovery,” especially in high-performance athletes.
Lowers Blood Pressure and Heart Rate
Sports massage is also known to help improve cardiovascular health. It does this by:
- Promoting relaxation by stimulating the parasympathetic response, leading to reduced heart rate and blood pressure.
- Lowering cortisol and adrenaline levels helps calm the cardiovascular system.
- Easing the workload on the heart, contributing to healthier blood pressure regulation, by enhancing blood flow and reducing muscle tension.
Benefits of Sports Massage for Athletes
There are numerous benefits of sports massage for athletes. This includes enhancing performance, preventing injuries, and accelerating recovery. Here are some of the main benefits sports massages hold for athletes.
Enhances Athletic Performance
How an athlete performs in their sport is what can make or break their career. Sports massages can help in enhancing an athlete’s performance to a great extent.
- Sports massage helps maintain muscle elasticity and function, which allows athletes to perform movements with more power and control.
- The massage promotes increased circulation and reduces muscle stiffness, delaying the onset of fatigue during training or competition.
- It also helps reduce anxiety and boost concentration, improving decision-making and reaction time.
- Sports massage also promotes faster recovery, helping athletes train harder and leading to consistent performance improvements.
Accelerates Recovery Post-Workout or Event
Timely and proper recovery for athletes is of utmost importance, especially for athletes. Sports massage helps in several ways. The massage:
- Increases blood flow, delivering oxygen and nutrients to fatigued muscles for quicker recovery.
- Helps flush out metabolic waste like lactic acid, minimizing delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) and stiffness.
- Relaxes tight muscles and promotes mobility, which helps the body return to its normal state after intense exertion.
Improves Endurance and Stamina
Endurance and stamina are two aspects that a good athlete needs to possess. Sports massages help with this aspect by:
- Boosting blood flow, ensuring muscles receive more oxygen and nutrients during physical activity, and delaying fatigue.
- Minimizing the buildup of lactic acid and other waste products, and helping
- Enhancing muscle suppleness and reducing tightness, thus enabling more efficient energy use and continued performance.
Aids Healing of Soft Tissue Injuries
Athletes can suffer from soft tissue injuries more often than other individuals. Sports massage can help them deal with it better by:
- Improving circulation and delivering oxygen and nutrients essential for tissue repair.
- Helping realign collagen fibers and reducing muscle knots and improving flexibility, and preventing long-term stiffness.
- Helping drain excess fluid and calming inflammation in the soft tissue, promoting quicker recovery.
- Decreasing the recovery periods for injuries like strains, sprains, and tendonitis.
Benefits of Sports Massage for Runners
For runners, their performance, endurance, and recovery are of the utmost importance. These are aspects that can benefit from regular sports massage. Here are some ways massage therapy can help runners.
Alleviates Leg and Lower Back Pain
Sports massage has been known to alleviate lower back pain effectively. Sports massage does this by:
- Targeting muscles in the legs and lower back, and easing strain and reducing pain that is caused by overuse or poor posture.
- Enhancing circulation, which helps deliver oxygen and nutrients to affected tissues more efficiently and supports healing and pain relief.
- Relaxing surrounding muscles and relieving pressure on nerves in the lower back, like the sciatica nerve.
- Promoting better posture and muscle balance, and helping correct issues that contribute to chronic back discomfort.
Reduces Risk of Overuse Injuries
Muscle overuse is a problem that a lot of runners face. Sports massage can truly help in reducing this risk by:
- Helping detect tight or weak areas in the body early and preventing imbalances that could potentially lead to repetitive strain injuries.
- Improving muscle flexibility and joint mobility to reduce the stress caused by other habitual movements.
- Helping break down knots and scar tissue, which could be restricting motion and leading to chronic overuse injuries.
- Accelerating recovery and reducing overall wear and tear.
Improves Joint Mobility for Running Efficiency
With runners needing to be constantly active and moving, having good joint mobility is extremely important. Sports massage can
- Help loosen tight muscles and fascia around joints, allowing for smoother and more efficient movement when running
- Help release tension and knots that limit joint movement, particularly in the hips, knees, and ankles.
- Help maintain muscle symmetry around the joints, enhancing joint alignment.
Another insight by Dr. Tiffany Field from Touch Research Institute states that sports massage can help improve flexibility and joint performance, which are key in repetitive movements like running.”
Relieves Tight Hamstrings and Calves
A runner’s performance is dependent on their legs. This is why ensuring that issues with their hamstring or calves do not arise is important. This is done by sports massage by
- Targeting deep muscle fibers and helping relax and lengthen tight hamstrings and calf muscles, thus improving overall comfort and mobility.
- Improving circulation and delivering oxygen and nutrients to overworked muscles, improving and aiding in repairing microtears, and reducing tightness.
- Increasing flexibility and resilience in the hamstrings and calves, supporting smoother, more efficient running mechanics.
Benefits of Sports Massage for Weightlifters
Another group of athletes who need to ensure that they are in perfect form are weightlifters, and sports massage can help with this. Here is a look at some of the benefits deep tissue massage holds for them.
Relieves Muscle Tightness from Heavy Lifting
The post-lifting phase is a crucial one for athletes. Here, sports massage:
- Helps release tight, overworked muscles after intense weightlifting sessions,
- Promotes circulation, helping remove lactic acid and other waste products that often contribute to tightness and stiffness.
- Improves range of motion and reduces chronic tightness from repeated lifts.
Founder of NASM or National Academy of Sports Medicine, Dr. Michael Clark stated that massage “corrects tissue dysfunction and enhances muscle recovery,”. This is especially considering lifters who are dealing with tension from heavy loads.
Improves Range of Motion for Better Form
Like with other athletes and runners, sports massage helps improve range of motion for better form for weightlifters. Sports massage
- Loosens tight muscles and connective tissues around key joints like shoulders, hips, and knees, the seamless working of which is crucial for deep squats, clean lifts, and presses.
- Allows for more controlled movements and reduces compensations, and lowers injury risk when lifting.
- Helps break down muscle knots and scar tissue that limit motion, promoting smoother exercise execution.
Neurophysiologist and strength coach, Dr. Chad Waterbur, emphasizes that “improved range of motion through soft tissue work like massage enhances technique, allowing lifters to better engage target muscles and lift with greater control.”
Helps Break Down Scar Tissue
Existing scar tissue and adhesions can restrict movement and limit lifting performance. This is why it is important to break them down, something sports massage does impressively.
- The massage prevents scar tissue buildup and promotes the proper healing of the tiny muscle tears that a weightlifter might experience in their career.
- The breakdown of sscartissues results in the restoration of suppleness to muscles and fascia, helping them lift even more powerfully.
- Since sports therapy also reduces internal friction, it restores proper movement mechanics, minimising the risk of reinjury.
Aids in Muscle Repair and Growth
A weightlifter’s muscles are one of the most crucial aspects for them, and with sports massages to support them, their chances of repairing and growing muscles increase.
- By boosting blood circulation, delivering oxygen and nutrients to damaged muscle fibers, the massage supports faster repair and growth.
- Sports massages help remove lactic acid and metabolic waste, creating a better internal environment for muscle recovery and hypertrophy.
- With the faster muscle recovery, weightlifters can maintain a regular training schedule, which is critical for progressive overload and muscle growth.
Psychological Benefits of Sports Massage
Apart from the physiological aspect, sports massage also provides psychological benefits.
Reduces Anxiety and Depression Symptoms
Sports massage
- Helps decrease cortisol, or the stress hormone, which helps reduce anxiety and tension.
- It can help the body release mood-enhancing neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin, and help alleviate symptoms of depression and promote emotional well-being.
Enhances Mental Focus and Clarity
With the right therapist by your side, sports massage can also help enhance mental clarity and focus. It does this by:
- Lowering stress and muscle tension, and helping clear the mind and improve cognitive sharpness.
- Enhancing memory consolidation, mood regulation, and daytime mental performance.
- Activating the parasympathetic nervous system, which helps quiet racing thoughts and sharpen focus.
Promotes Overall Sense of Well-Being
Sports massage can be a great way to promote an overall sense of well-being by balancing the physiological and psychological aspects.
- Sports massages create a positive impact on individuals by helping the body release hormones like serotonin, dopamine, and endorphins.
- The massage therapy also encourages mindfulness and body awareness, leading to improved emotional balance and self-care habits.
- Sports massage also helps you feel physically restored and mentally refreshed, potentially increasing motivation to stay active.
How Often Should I Get a Sports Massage?
The ideal frequency for sports massage depends on your activity level, training intensity, and individual recovery needs.
For athletes in training, a massage every 1–2 weeks is recommended to help support performance and prevent injury.
During intense competitions or heavy workouts, weekly sessions may be more beneficial, while for general maintenance, massage once every 3–4 weeks may be sufficient.
According to the American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA) and Cleveland Clinic, regular sessions tailored to your schedule provide the best long-term benefits.
How Blys Can Help You Find a Professional Sports Massage Therapist
At Blys, we have a team of trained, professional massage therapists to help you through any sphere of your physiological journey.
You can get on a call with our sports massage therapist and book a sports massage from the comfort of your home, without any hassles.
