Fall is a great time to stay fit all season long. Whether you are a weekend warrior hiking the peaks, mountain biker, trail runner or golfer, warming up and cooling down are key to recovering from activities that push your body to its limits. Massage therapy can help with both. Massage before exercise can help loosen muscles and increase flexibility prior to your activity. Massage after exercise can help increase muscle fiber regeneration and can help with lowering your heart rate and blood pressure.
How regular massage can help with Sports Recovery:
- Increase Flexibility
- Improve Circulation
- Improve Muscle Recovery
- Improve Mental Focus
Research shows that massage has amazing health benefits
Sports Recovery
Caring for muscles in between workouts can help accelerate recovery, help you avoid injury, plus improve your overall performance and health. By helping to reduce inflammation and increase blood flow, this can help ease the tightening and shortening of muscle tissue.
A study by the researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago, studied if massage would improve systemic circulation and reduce muscle soreness after exercise. As expected, both groups felt sore immediately after exercise, but the exercise-and-massage group reported no continuing soreness 90 minutes after massage. “We believe that massage is really changing physiology in a positive way,” said Franklin. “This is not just blood flow speeds — this is actually a vascular response.”
And, according to the AMTA (American Massage Therapy Association), their research suggests massage has a substantial impact on both the physical and mental health of people who do sports and exercise. Massage can be a preventative, corrective, and rehabilitative treatment.
Improve Circulation
Massage therapy can help with circulation by increasing the blood flow. This helps increase oxygenation in the body and tissues. Blood carries oxygen, and oxygen helps us function properly and heal well. It can also help with lymphatic flow and removal of toxins in the body. Often when someone has poor circulation they have swelling, tension and tightness. The pressure applied through massage therapy can help move blood through congested areas and allow new blood to flow once those areas are released.
One study from the University of Illinois at Chicago showed that massage improved vascular function in people who had not exercised, suggesting that massage has benefits for people regardless of their level of physical activity.
Manage Pain
According to the American Chiropractic Association, lower back pain is the single leading cause of disability worldwide. Approximately one in ten people have it, and for many who develop back pain, it becomes a chronic condition. Massage helps improve venous and lymphatic flow throughout the body. By manipulating the muscles, blood flow is able to increase throughout the body. Increasing blood flow facilitates the circulation and absorption of nutritional elements into the muscle tissues.
Research has shown the inclusion of massage therapy can help with chronic pain such as back pain, headaches, osteoarthritis, and behavioral health issues like anxiety and depression, rehabilitation and athletic training and injury treatment.
Boost Mental Health
Dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins are neurotransmitters that are released when the autonomic nervous system is stimulated. Dopamine is known as the “feel-good” hormone. Serotonin helps regulate your mood as well as your sleep, appetite, digestion, and memory. And Endorphins are your body’s natural pain reliever, which your body produces in response to stress or discomfort.
Research shows that massage can help increase the secretion of endorphins, dopamine, and serotonin — the body’s “feel-good” chemicals, and help reduce the levels of stress hormones, such as cortisol, epinephrine, and norepinephrine to help reduce anxiety, fatigue, and stress.
Hiking
Key Muscles engaged when Hiking: quads, hamstrings, glutes, calves, feet, ankles, upper body
Most Common Injuries:
- Muscle soreness
- Low back pain
- Swollen joints
- Foot pain
Trail Running
Key muscles engaged with Trail Running: feet glutes, ankles, calves, hip flexors, upper body
Most common injuries:
- Muscle soreness
- Swelling
- ITB syndrome
- Tendinitis
Mountain Biking
Key muscles engaged with Mountain Biking: quads, glutes, calves, shoulder, chest, forearms
Most common injuries:
- Muscle soreness and micro tears
- Neck pain
- Tight hamstrings
- Low back pain
Golf
Key muscles engaged with Golf: back, arms, glutes, chest, shoulders, hamstrings
Most common injuries:
- Back pain
- Knee pain
- Tendinitis/golfers elbow
- Rotator cuff/shoulder soreness
How an Infinity Massage Chair can help:
Being able to have a massage at home, on your schedule, whenever you need it is a necessity. Massage chairs offer full-body massage form head-to-toe. You can even save custom programs on many chairs, or use the pre-programmed auto programs like Extension, Rest & Restore, Back & Spine, and Post Workout.
Massage chair features for your whole body:
- 4D Back Massage mechanism to create the feeling of human hands from neck to glutes
- Weightless Zero Gravity Recline to take pressure off your spine
- Triple Roller Total Sole Reflexology foot massage to hit pressure points on your feet
- Kneading and Oscillating Calf Massage that simultaneously work to relieve tension
- Lumbar Heat to help with muscle soreness
- Hand, Wrist and Palm massage
Many fall sports and activities require physical strength and endurance. They are often sports people do multiple times a week that require many repetitive motions that can cause strain on the body. Massage can help make sure you are at the top of your game all year round.
Check out our Buyers Guide or Shop for Your Perfect Chair now.