In this article, we’ll share our top ten reasons you should book a sports massage asap! Here’s what we’ll cover:
- Sleep Improvement
- Enhanced Performance
- Lower Stress Levels
- Increased Wellbeing
- Improved Recovery Time
- Increased flexibility
- Chronic pain relief
- Lower anxiety
- It helps you deal with hormonal changes
- Increased blood circulation
Sleep improvement
A professional sports massage can help reduce your body’s cortisol levels and stimulate the secretion of melatonin — the sleep hormone. This, in turn, induces deeper and calmer sleep.
Better sleep boosts your productivity helps you to focus better on your tasks during the day. It also has other health benefits, like boosting your immune system’s performance and helping your heart function better.
So, if you’re having trouble falling asleep or staying asleep through the night, it might be time to book a sports massage.
Enhanced physical performance
Sports massage reduces soreness and tightness in strained muscles, which helps your body adjust to a more efficient range of motion. As your muscles become pliable and operate within a larger range of motion and symmetry, you can complete intense physical activities — like running, jumping rope, and mounting climbing — with a greater level of ease.
It also improves joint stability, so you can work out for longer periods of time without losing steam.
Lower stress levels
Sports massages are natural stress relievers! Often, we are so focused on meeting a workout goal that we don’t realize that our body is undergoing a significant amount of strain during this process.
Sports massage stimulates your parasympathetic nervous system — which is responsible for relaxing your body after stress. It also reduces the built-up tension around your muscles and tissues.
The release of tense muscles, along with general stress relief, can make a huge difference in how you feel physically and emotionally, which significantly improves your overall well-being.
Faster recovery time
Sports massages help your injuries heal faster.
During massage therapy, your blood circulates faster, and nutrients get absorbed into the muscles quicker. This ultimately speeds up your body’s healing process.
Sports massages also reduce inflammation and flush out toxins that can slow down injury recovery.
Increased flexibility
Sports massage therapy loosens tight knots in the muscles and tissues around your joints. When the muscle fibers are loosened, elasticity and elongation become possible, unlocking new levels of flexibility.
Having regular sports massages can be beneficial in increasing your flexibility and range of motion. When your muscles are healthy and relaxed, they’re better equipped to stretch and sustain a wider range of movement.
Sports massage also reduces joint pain and restrictions. With less pressure on your joints, you’ll have a greater range of motion — which allows you to reach and hold flexible poses for a longer period of time during workouts.
Pain relief
Sports massage therapy speeds up the release of endorphins in the body, providing natural relief for acute and chronic pain. As your therapist kneads and stretches your muscles, hard knots in your tissues loosen up, and your body relaxes.
In the case of inflammation caused by physical injury, sports massages speed up
the flow of oxygen to the inflammatory site — reducing swelling and tenderness in the affected area.
Lower anxiety levels
During sports massage therapy, the body produces chemicals, such as serotonin and dopamine, which tranquilizes the nervous system and helps to reduce anxiety.
Regular sports massages can also help lower your body’s cortisol levels — the stress hormone — and clear the mind so that you can focus better.
It helps you deal with hormonal changes
Sports massage therapy helps regulate your hormones, especially cortisol (a stress hormone), and serotonin (a hormone that helps fight depression).
Hormonal imbalance has short and long-term effects on your health including:
- Fatigue and muscle weakness
- Stiff and swollen joints
- Frequent urination
- Dry skin and brittle hair
- Anxiety and depression
Increased blood circulation
Sports massage therapy improves your body’s venous return, which is the blood flow rate to your heart.
During the massage, friction between the tissues as they move against each other creates the dilation of vessels and capillaries, which allows more warm blood flow to and from your heart.
Increased blood circulation also helps your body to get rid of wastes and toxins regularly, improving your quality of health. On a more physical level, it assists the muscles in their recovery process, helping them to regenerate tissues faster than before. This is especially important for those engaging in physical activities that require quick bursts of energy and strength.
As the flow of oxygen and nutrients increases, the body releases endorphins. These endorphins — known as the happy hormones — improve your mental wellbeing.
Better wellbeing
The release of endorphins and serotonin during massage helps improve mood and promotes a sense of wellbeing, all of which are good for overall mental, physical, and emotional health.
Specifically, you’ll experience:
- Relief from physical and emotional stress which improves your mental health
- Better sleep: Sports massage eases the tiredness associated with exercise and the effects of physical exertion, promoting a deeper and more restful sleep
Book a sports massage session on ClassPass
Without any doubt, a sports massage is one of the best investments you can make for your health.
Ready to 10X your wellbeing? Find a sports massage spa near you on ClassPass.
