Sports massage is the method of soft tissue manipulation used by most physiotherapists. The focus is on improving pain free movement by relaxing affected muscles and surrounding soft tissues to optimise function.

The style and techniques are preferred by athletes but improving movement is beneficial to most people regardless of lifestyle. My techniques can be adapted to suit your needs whether improving marathon times or pain free walks around the block.

No, from young children to the very elderly can benefit from sports massage. If under the age of 18 a parent or guardian will need to be present. Adolescents especially benefit from sports massage to help with rebalancing sudden growth spurts. For the still active, older person sports massage can help prolong independent movement.

This is a tricky one! Perceiving pain is different for every one. After an injury or a longstanding painful issue, you are already in pain and locating the source can be a little more uncomfortable. 

Some ascribe to the saying of “good, bad and ugly” pain. To stay away from the bad spectrum I use pain scoring to monitor your levels throughout your treatment and as a gauge on success of treatment/s. Where 0 is no pain and 10 is the worst pain you’ve experienced I’ll ask you to score what you feel and limit my techniques to be less than 7/10. Treatment moving above 7/10 can start to induce flight or fight responses from the nervous system leading to more tension.

This dose mean I rely on your feedback and communication, if something is great tell me, if it’s not so great tell me.

I cannot guarantee any instant success of reducing pain of injury or chronic tension. the healing process has a time scale for each tissue type. in most cases sports massage can help reduce the time to heal and limit scaring or disfunction but there are a lot of factors outside of my control contribute to wellness.

Some of the deep tissue techniques can leave some people feeling slightly sore after massage. These are usually areas of longstanding tension which can take more than one treatment to resolve as they have built up over a long time. it is debatable if the soreness is from awareness being brought to that area or the tension hasn’t yet been fully resolved. If you feel soreness use a cold pack or covered ice for 20 minutes only every 4 hours or as needed. If the soreness continues for more than 3 days please contact me for further advice or speak to your GP.

It comes down to your personal comfort. I can’t work effectively through thick material such as denim which reduces my feel of soft tissues and reduces movement. Direct contact with skin is preferable (i wear quality gloves) but you’ll not be required to be fully undressed. Shorts are great as long as they are relatively thin material and allow freedom of movement, when treatment is for legs. For event treatment and relaxing to upper level muscles wearing active sports clothing is fine.