Finding A Good Sports Massage Therapist Can Be Easily Done
Finding A Good Sports Massage Therapist Can Be Easily Done
Blog Article
Continuing Education in Sports Massage
Continuing education in sports massage is a great way to build on your skills and increase your opportunities in this rewarding field. It is important to understand the anatomy involved and the specialized knowledge of athletic injury and treatment.
Author Sandy Fritz explains the benefits, intent, cautions and timing of sports massage, including its role in enhancing physical fitness and performance. Includes detailed case studies and access to an Evolve companion website featuring videos demonstrating techniques.
Observation and Palpation
Observing and palpating are integral to any massage treatment. Highly skilled therapists palpate continuously, on an almost subconscious level, gathering and interpreting data through their fingers, palms, knuckles, and forearms to evaluate tissue condition or note changes in the tissue during the session. Observation is objective and involves discerning signs of muscle dysfunction such as heat, cold, edema, pain, tenderness, crepitus (a crackling sensation indicating tissue damage) and symmetry.
Massage therapists who work with athletes must also know how to assess the possibility of deep vein thrombosis, which kills more people in the United States each year than AIDS and breast cancer combined. This course is an introduction to assessing clients for this dangerous situation and includes an overview of the signs, symptoms, risk factors, and management of DVT in sports massage.
Range of Motion
Adding sports massage techniques to your repertoire allows you to treat clients that are involved in athletics and recreational exercise. From weekend warriors to seasoned triathletes, this specialized form of bodywork increases range of motion and reduces the risk of injury.
After a strenuous workout or competition, an athlete's body needs time to rest and recover. Performing post-event sports massage promotes circulation and assists the body in eliminating waste products like lactic acid and other metabolic debris, helping athletes to recover more quickly and return to a normal physiological state.
The 2nd edition of this popular book provides a comprehensive overview of the principles of sports massage, including indications and contraindications for the various treatment approaches. The book covers a number of different therapeutic modalities, including deep tissue massage, trigger point therapy, pay-per-session vs. subscription plans for sports massage and stretching. Hundreds of full-color photographs demonstrate techniques, and an Evolve companion website offers step-by-step video demonstrations. The authors also discuss common categories of injuries and the treatment of each.
Client Assessment
Massage professionals who work with sports clients need to know about the specific movement patterns involved in a particular sport and the impact on the body. This understanding is necessary in order to evaluate for soft tissue changes that interfere with the sport activity and to design a massage treatment plan.
Auditory, visual, olfactory, and tactile (touch) data can also contribute to client assessment. For example, joint crepitus or grating noise can be valuable assessment data when working with arthritic clients. In addition, the olfactory sense can detect odors such as perspiration that could indicate an infection or other medical issue.
Client assessment should be factual in nature and include the development of outcome goals that are quantifiable. For example, a goal might be to improve range of motion by a certain percentage. The therapist should be able to determine when that objective has been achieved. Then the therapist should move on to another goal.
Communication Skills
The ability to communicate with clients is an essential component of any massage therapy practice. Clients often have questions about treatment and may need clarification on a particular topic. As a result, it is important to have strong communication skills, particularly when working with athletes.
Working with different sports teams and athletes presents unique challenges, but also many rewards. Whether the sport is football, gymnastics, swimming or something else entirely, working with professional and semi-professional athletes requires a specific skill set and extensive knowledge of the sport in question.
Continuing education courses that teach about the various forms of athletic massage can help you refine your approach and develop your skill set. This can increase your opportunities for employment, and help you find a specialized niche in the field of sports massage that will make you stand out from your competition.