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Massage for Workouts
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HANDS ON HEALING: Faster Recovery from Hard Workouts By Katherine Griffin Your kids talked you into a 20-mile hike last weekend, and now that stabbing pain with every step won't let you forget it. Some coaches might recommend a good sports massage to get you moving again. "Sports massage" isn't really a special type of massage. It simply refers to a massage that centers on the areas a person uses most when exercising: for runners, the legs; for swimmers, the arms. At the moment, there's not a lot of evidence that a post exercise massage can give athletes and other active people a boost. But there are compelling reasons to believe that massage may shorten the time the body takes to recover from exercise. During massage, the warmth and pressure of a massage therapist's hands cause cells to release histamine, a chemical that prompts nearby capillaries to dilate. That, in turn, increases the circulation of blood to the muscles, getting more oxygen and nutrients into the muscles cells and pushing out metabolic wastes, or toxins. Field suspects that a preperformance massage might work much the way a warmup does--getting muscles loose and ready for action--with the added benefit of reducing the jitters. This fall those claims will be put to the test when researchers at the institute begin studying how massage affects the athletic performance and recovery time of college track- team members |
Massage Therapy and Healing Arts Center & Day Spa |
2100 Padre Blvd. Suite 3
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