Sports Massage: Notes and Study Guide

3/13/23

History of Sports Massage

[1972]: Lasse Viren (The Flying Finn) - credited victories to daily deep friction massage

[1980]: Jack Meagher and Pat Boughton - Published "Sports Massage"

[1984]: Summer Olympic Games - first available massage for athletes

Pushing strength and endurance beyond an athlete's limits can cause:

- increased metabolic waste

- strains in muscle

- inflammation and associated fibrosis

- pain and spasms that restrict movement

Sports Massage uses a majority of Swedish techniques

Athletic Massage

Applications of massage techniques that combine:

- Anatomic and physiologic knowledge

- Must have an understanding of strength training and conditioning

- Specific massage skills

- Goal: enhance athletic performance

Massage concentrates on muscle groups used during competition/ areas of athlete's concern

• Benefits of athletic massage

- causes hyperemia

- enhances local venous and lymph circulation

- reduces muscle spams

- identifies and reduces muscle tension

- helps break down fascial adhesions

- reduces and helps realign fibrosis

- reduces ischemic pain and muscle stiffness

- helps injuries heal more quickly and stronger

- promotes relaxation and recuperation

• Application of MET (Active Joint Movement)

- extending/ moving a body part/ limb to the point of discomfort

- moving it to a position of no discomfort

- supporting body part while client contracts the agonist/ antagonist muscle, followed by relaxing

- backing off slightly

• Event Massage

- [Pre-Event] 15min-1hr prior to a competition: used in addition to a proper warm-up

- [Intra-Event] No more than 10min: specific massage provided for an athlete competing in multiple same-day events

-[Post-Event] 1hr-2hr after competition: relaxing massage that flushes out areas used after competing

• Restorative/ Training Massage

• Rehabilitation/ Treatment Massage

Random notes:

- friction/ heat causes relaxation

- do not work on sprains until after 48hr due to the acute injury

- when working on the sprain, work above or below; not directly

trauma -

- Hypoxia results in an inability to use oxygen as the terminal oxidizer and leads to a dependence on the glycolytic pathway for ATP

3/26/23

Event Massage

- Pre-event - shaking, jostling, fast/slow compression, medium-paced rocking, tapotement

- Intra-event - keep muscles warm, remove lactic acid, recover-relax-energize,

- Post-event - should be done within 1-2hr after an event, helps prevent DOMS,

- Post-event 2 - massage the following day, helps prevent injuries, faster recovery, very relaxing, compressive effleurage, PNF (proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation), stretching can help prevent trigger points, (all types of stretching), reciprocal inhibition,

• 2 other categories of massage

Injury massage -

Training massage - massage that consists of 60% deep kneading (Russian massage)/ massage on specific muscles

• Effects of heat and cold

Ice is great for pain, cramps, inflammation

Heat is great for hypertonic muscles that are not relaxed

Random notes:

- a stretch is the opposite of an agonist muscle's action

- reciprocal inhibition: engaging the opposite muscle so that the cramped/ hypertonic muscle can relax

- isometric contraction fatigues faster than isotonic

- stretching a client: contract no longer than 20 sec usually 3-5x

- if you do more than that it irritates the nerves, muscles fibers and will result in TPs

- P.I.R: post-isometric release (a part of PNF)

4/3/23

anaerobic exercise - a workout that results in oxygen depletion in comparison to oxygen being replaced

aerobic exercise - a workout that is slow in oxygen depletion

Fast twitch muscle - able to overload more than the slow twitch muscle

Slow twitch muscle -

- There is a lot of biochemistry involved in sports massage. ATP is a huge part of it and it uses glucose and glycogen (power house cell)

- Swelling constricts circulation

- With a strain you never stretch a ligament

- A sprain you can stretch after 2 weeks

Pain-spasm-pain cycle

pain, muscle spasm, ischemia/ decrease in circulation (a repeated cycle)

PRICE is able to help with the pain cycle (protect, rest, ice, compress, elevate)

- Ice is number one for reducing inflammation, pain and spasm

- putting ice directly on the skin is not good and can result in frostbite

- different stages of ice

- ice pack 5-7 min

1 - cold/ pain

2 - tingling sensation

3 - warm sensation

4 - numbness

- during a subacute stage of injury you should only use ice and minimal light effleurage

- Swelling:

- pros: a natural cast that supplies rich leukocytes and fibroblasts

- cons: further damage causing lack of oxygen, causes pain, compressing of nerves

• Modalities used in sports massage

Swedish

NMT

Myofascial

Lymphatic

- soft tissue injuries result in the tearing of collagen fibers

collagen: the tensile strength of connective tissue

elastin: keeps your skin elastic

fibroblast:

adhesions: collagen fibers that connect to structures other than injured tissue, restricting mobility

active trigger point - the client is aware of the pain

the difference between tender point and trigger point - tender points are located closer to tendons and trigger points usually refer pain

- MET helps to counteract spasms

- microtrauma is an injury found in between muscle fibers

[look up myotomes and dermatomes] for medical massage purposes

- training massage changes the physiological structure of the muscle and ecourges collagen growth and lets your nerves connect for better effectiveness in response. If the muscle is able to contract and relax, you are able to get the most response out of a muscle

- dominated with kneading/ petrissage (including wringing) 50-60%

- friction 12% (done on tendons and the belly of the muscle, having different effects)

- TVS: tapotement, vibrations, shaking 8%

- Effleurage 5%

Post Event

- Kneading: pulling (relaxing effect), twisting, rolling (typically done on the belly of the muscle), pushing, stretching, lifting, pinching, scrolling

insertion to origin is relaxing

origin to insertion is stimulating

MET was focused joint movements

PNF was focused more on fascial restrictions

Post event II - 12-24hr after an event meant for complete relaxation and continue to reduce DOMS from Post Event I

4/10/23

- Ice reduces pain and swelling

- Heat can make swelling worse

Russian Training massage: It's a massage that includes deep, heavy, milking (petrissage) that works out the muscle without the athlete having to

- Not an actual modality, but includes different application of sports massage techniques

(Class 7: Tendonitis packet)