Depending on their sport, many athletes may use their time off from their sport as a way to recover from any injuries. Coupled with physical therapy, sports massage and rehab may help athletes return from an injury faster in the future. As some sports seasons start to wind down, now is the perfect time for your athlete to learn some basic techniques to help limit injuries in the future.
Pre-Sports Massage
The very first thing your athlete must do to prevent an injury is have a warmup. Typically, their coach leads them in a warmup, but there may be times where they warmup on their own. Regardless of who leads the warmup, it’s important one happens.
With a pre-sports massage, we work with your athlete before an event to give them a quick massage. This type of massage helps to ensure the muscles are ready to perform. We do this through short, invigorating strokes. These strokes engage the muscles before activity starts. During a pre-sports massage, we also prepare your athlete psychologically as well. Typically, we perform a pre-sports massage before their warmup. That way, their muscles are extra engaged and ready for the sporting event ahead.
Post-Sports Massage
A cool down period after a sporting event is just as important as a warmup before an event. That’s where a post-sports massage helps. However, many athletes don’t take advantage of a cool down period that still involves movement. For some, their cool down period is listening to critiques from their coach.
Unlike a pre-sports massage that uses short, invigorating strokes, a post-sports massage uses longer, slower strokes. Your child’s muscles require different ways to relax and repair themselves after using them. A post-sports massage is the perfect way to do that. They’ll recover from any soreness after an event faster than if they skip a post-sports massage.
Overall, we take the time to get to know your athlete. Before each pre-sports massage and post-sports massage, we’ll listen to them and see what their trouble areas are and work on them.
K-Tape
An additional service we offer for athletes is kinesiology tape. Aruna is functional movement techniques certified by Rock Tape. Rock Tape is the brand Aruna uses. K-tape is great to help in the rehab process. Overall, k-tape helps in reducing pain and speeding up recovery. Your athlete can keep the k-tape on their bodies for up to seven days. Additionally, if they experience an injury or soreness in the same place repeatedly, k-tape helps avoid a repeat injury. We apply k-tape after a customized massage to ensure the stretched muscle remain stretched during the event.
Sometimes, you can’t avoid a sports injury. With sports and rehab massages, you cut down on the likelihood of an injury when combined with regular practices. If you’re worried about an injury in your child, turn to Therapeutic Medical Massage. Aruna has years of experience in helping athletes in a variety of sports. If you’re ready for her help, give the office a call now to get started.
