Sports Massage, What's the difference?

[Mohamed S]

Hiya Everyone

My hubby is a body builder and at the moment he is suffering with a lot of pain in his shoulder (rotator cuff areas). I do Swedish Body Massage but it has got to the stage where I don't believe I am doing any good, I just don't seem to be able to get deep enough for him.

Would Sports massage benifit him, what does it involve and how much difference is there from Swedish to Sports Massage?

Angel x

 

[Peggy P]

Hi Angel

I agree with Paul, but I think that Gill’s comment about “mechanical aids” is potentially misleading, and blurs the distinction between ‘sports therapy’ and ‘sports and remedial massage’ (which has been discussed in several threads on the ‘sports therapies’ forum). To quote from Jari Ylinen’s textbook on ‘Sports Massage’:


I did an ITEC general massage course before proceeding to an LSSM/BTEC course in sports and remedial massage. Among the techniques which were taught on my LSSM course but not on my ITEC course were:

1) use of deep cross-fibre friction to treat minor injuries
2) elbow and forearm techniques
3) importance of posture, use of bodyweight and a sufficiently low couch to apply firm pressure, especially when treating muscular clients
4) side-lying techniques
5) soft tissue release (STR), muscle energy techniques (MET) and neuromuscular techniques (NMT).

It is arguable that all of the above can be described as ‘remedial massage’ techniques rather than ‘sports massage techniques’. They are also taught on some advanced massage courses which are not directly sports-related: for example, the ‘holistic medical massage’ courses run by [link=http://www.jingmassage.com/]http://www.jingmassage.com[/link] . (One of the other features of a good sports massage course is that it will include techniques for massaging over clothing at open-air sports events where lack of privacy and/or cold conditions make this advisable.)

You will find details of qualified sports or remedial massage therapists on the following websites:

[link=http://www.theisrm.com/]http://www.theisrm.com[/link]
[link=http://www.lcsp.uk.com/therapist.php]http://www.lcsp.uk.com/therapist.php[/link]
[link=http://www.sportsmassageassociation.org/]http://www.sportsmassageassociation.org/[/link]

Regards

Alan