I have been offering massage therapies for more than 10 years and therefore acquired a lot of experience. I have both Itec and Vtct Level 4 qualifications in Holistic and Sports massage therapies. The two therapies have lots in common but sports massage techniques may highly benefit amateur athletes that practice a sport regularly.
Holistic Massage:
Holistic massage (also called therapeutic massage) helps to reduce the effects of stress by encouraging relaxation, which supports the parasympathetic nervous system. It reduce tension in muscles, improves circulation, reduces heart rate and blood pressure, and improve lymph flow thereby boosting immunity.
Sport massage:
Sport massage can be part of a training regime. With regular treatments, athletes are more able to sustain high levels of performance without getting injured.
After a period of hard training or performance, there will be an accumulation of waste material and possibly some micro-trauma with slight swelling in the muscles. By stimulating the blood circulation through the area with massage, the waste is removed more quickly and more fresh blood from the arteries arrives to the site to supply nutrients and promote repairing.
1) Pre-event sport massage
From two days to two minutes before the event. Deep treatment to relax the muscles will be given at least two days before the event. As the competition get closer, massage will be slightly stimulating but more gentle only in order to calm and relax the athlete without relaxing muscles too much.
2) Post-event sport massage
Massage can be an adequate substitute for a warm-down as it can achieve much the same effect by removing muscle waste and stretching the tissues.
Lymphatic drainage massage:
The accumulation of fluid and damaged cell particles needs to be removed from the injured area. Massage will stimulate the flow of lymph.
Sport massage will also benefit periostitis, bursitis, joint pain, postural problems (cervical and lumbar lordosis, thoracic kyphosis, forward and backward tilting pelvis, sway-back knees), neuralgia and brachial neuralgia (compression or tethering of a nerve), neuritis (after the inflammation has been treated), sciatica, fibrosis and adhesions, constipation, control and management of osteoarthritis (due to excessive wear and tear or to a past traumatic injury), spondylosis, ankylosing spondylitis, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy.