London Marathon: Why a sports massage should be a central part of your running plan.
Winston Stephenson has recently joined the MASAJ family - as a movement coach as well as a Massage Therapist, Winston's anatomical knowledge is vast and detailed. A proponent of optimal wellness, Winston is always searching for routes to achieve his clients goals beyond the couch. Having trained in sports massage therapy, he has thorough knowledge of how effective sports massage can be when training towards a specific sporting goal. With the London Marathon coming up this Sunday, Winston takes a deep dive into the benefits of making sports massage an integral part of your running plan. Exploring both the clear physical and psychological benefits that sports massage can provide, here he discusses how to effectively integrate massage therapy into your training up to the big day and beyond.Running a marathon is a huge commitment and an intense physical challenge. The fact that you have signed up for such an undertaking makes you a champion even before standing on the starting line.
In the pursuit of preparing yourself for the event you’ve committed to regular training sessions, increasing your running distance and speed with the aim of getting you in the best shape for when you get on the start line. However, in the process you can very quickly find that your muscles begin to tighten, you experience increased muscle tension, decreased flexibility and an overall reduction in your range of movement. As a consequence, blood circulation becomes poorer, toxins in the muscles increase and there is overall less oxygen to fuel your muscles. This all equates to deterioration in performance and can increase your chance of injury.
The toll on your body after months of training greatly increases your susceptibility to repetitive strain and impact injuries such as shin splints, compartment syndrome and runner’s knee to name a few. This may even alter your running technique as you try to compensate for your body's restrictions, ultimately exposing your body to further chance of injury and so a downward spiral can ensue, setting you back or even derailing your training plans.
This is where a sports massage can be a game changer. A massage counters the excessive stress on the body, ensuring your training sessions produce the desired muscle strengthening benefits, ultimately leading to improved performance. Sports professionals across every discipline include sports massage as part of a balance training approach and this can be the difference between success and failure.
A sports massage is the use of a variety of body working techniques that manipulate the soft tissues in the body (muscles, tendon and ligaments) with the aim of increasing blood and lymphatic circulation, encouraging muscle fibre lengthening and aiding the body in breaking down excessive adhesion and scar tissue build up. Not only does massage provide these restorative benefits, but it also feels amazing and offers a number of physiological and psychological benefits during and after your training runs, and after the big 26.2 mile run itself! Here’s just a few of the benefits that can be experienced through sports massage treatment: Sports massage effectively assists the body’s post training recovery by increasing the flow of blood and lymphatic drainage. This encourages the removal of inflammation and lactic acid produced as a result of training. Improving blood circulation to increase oxygen supply to the muscles hastens muscle recovery and helps minimise muscle soreness caused by excessive waste product build up.
Sports massage also aids in training injury recovery as it works to reduce swelling to allow new tissue to be laid down quicker and better organisation of tissue formation.
Lighter, long flowing massage strokes, known as effleurage, help to relieve muscular tension without damaging fibres. This is ideal during the days approaching your marathon.
Massage enhances tissue permeability, allowing oxygen and nutrients to reach your muscle cells faster and remove waste products effectively.
Sports massage can aid the break down and remodelling of scar tissue, it can optimise your muscle fibres orientation following hard training periods where muscle hypertrophy and synthesis is taking place.Maintenance massages are also a great way to identify and treat tighter areas and ultimately prevent injuries before they occur.Having a lighter, pre-event massage the day before or the morning of your marathon helps you to optimise your performance. Post-event, a deeper tissue treatment is particularly beneficial in aiding muscle recovery from the ultimate physical challenge you have undertaken.And the best part of all, you get to relax! Sports massage provides support for your psychological well being as well, it’s a time where you can re energise, relax and rebuild the confidence to prepare for your next run. It’s a great way to take a break from the hard slog of marathon training and a great excuse to just lay down and do nothing for an hour.
It must be stressed that a sports massage on its own will not necessarily make you run faster, further, or significantly improve your personal best performance. However, it should be viewed as a practice to be balanced with your effective training, healthy nutrition, hydration, quality rest and effective recovery. Massage plays an integral role in allowing your body to better withstand the demands of training and increases your chances of remaining injury-free, so that you can achieve the consistency that leads to true improvements in training and performance. Our No.4 Sports massage is the perfect treatment to add to any type of sports training routine, our expert sports Therapists are highly trained and can work with you to create a plan that works for your own requirements, goals and needs.To everyone taking part in the 2023 London Marathon this weekend, you should be so proud of yourself for everything you’ve accomplished so far and we wish you the best of luck for the big day! And should you need a bit of recovery and recuperation after the physical and mental challenge that you’ve undergone, we are always here for some well deserved rest and relaxation, a place to hold you.