Sports Massage for the Upper Body: Techniques to Prevent Injury & Relieve Stress

Massage therapy is a practice with a multiplicity of benefits. Whether it s a quick rubdown or a full-body treatment, the human touch has practical applications for promoting both physical and emotional well-being. The basic idea behind massage is the use of motion, pressure, tension, and vibration on certain areas of the body, localized around muscles or joints in pain or under stress. This allows a release of tension and a return to a homeostatic condition. Therefore, massage is very important for general stress relief, pain management, preventing muscle injury, encouraging physical and emotional healing, or improving circulation.

Sports massage is a particular branch of massage that focuses on relieving skeleto-muscular tension and returning the muscles to a loose, relaxed state. Sports massage techniques provide a number of important benefits to athletes. Since they regularly train their muscles hard for peak performance, and then go out a push their bodies to the limit and beyond, they are prone to constant and chronic injuries. Sports massage helps to prevent some of those injuries, as well as speed up recovery time and relieve extreme muscle cramping and tension.

In this free video guide to sports massage, learn techniques to use for the upper and lower back, the shoulders, and the arms. Our massage therapist will walk you through step-by-step and give tips on how to use your forearms and elbows, as well as your hands, to relieve muscle tension and stress.
Credit: http://www.expertvillage.com/interviews/sports-massage-upper-body-intensive.htm

Author: Expert Village