Many of our clients are trained or skilled athletes participating in activities – professional and amateur sports, endurance training, martial arts, dance, yoga and Pilates – that require physical strength, agility and stamina. Typically, these clients are mindful of, and actively managing, the condition and health of their muscles and soft tissues.
As a result, athletes have unique needs, and generally seek one of two
benefits from rehabilitative and
sports massage therapy:
- To increase personal performance – increase coordination, increase stamina, more efficiently use their muscles, allow their bodies to conserve energy and create more economical and refined patterns of movement
- To speed recovery from a sports injury
At St. Louis Institute for Rehabilitative and Sports Massage, our therapists are experienced at helping athletes achieve these goals by varying the massage techniques or modalities utilized to complement season and off-season training. During season, our therapists work with athletes to lengthen muscles and release soft tissue. The in season benefits of sports massage therapy are increased range of motion and flexibility, increased oxygen capacity and endurance, improved inner-structural balance, the alleviation of discomforts, and increased blood and lymphatic flow.
During the off-season, our therapists use massage techniques that release restrictions throughout the body. We find that, regardless of ability or type of training and physical activity, athletes most commonly suffer from muscle imbalances – inhibition of specific muscles caused by injury, overuse due to repetitive motion, and over-activity of an opposing muscle group. While these limitations regularly occur in one spot, the strain pattern of the limitation – because of the distributive nature of the fascial net – is always body-wide.
That is why, through a whole body – not a regional – approach, our therapists have been highly successful helping athletes speed their recovery from sports injuries and increase their personal performance.
