Getting Ready for Spring Sports

For spring in the northern state it brings many people outside there only for recreation but also for intense physical activity like annual sporting leagues. In this blog post we're going to talk about what Tony Schwartz bodywork is going to do for you when it comes to preparing for spring sports leagues and activities. Throughout the entire calendar year I make a point to let people like marathoners and outdoor sports league players know that it's very important that come early to mid April every year they come in to help their body transition from indoor exercise to outdoor exercise. 

This adjustment is very important to your performance later as there is a lotta variation not only in weather conditions but also in the types of surfaces you'll be interacting with that will have an impact and how you perform. Joints muscles and ligaments get used to a certain type of environment and a lack of variation going outside changes the indoor conditions that your body issues too and can lead to kinks in your performance later. When you are addressing the issues earlier you can prevent injuries and improve the bodies performance earlier in the season and for some people in a timeframe that's very important considering how competitive certain sports can be.

So you might be asking yourself: what is so important that Tony needs to work on it but a little stretching can't handle? The answer is actually pretty simple most people including professional body workers don't always know their bodies as well as a think it's important to have an individual evaluation done by an independent party. Some of the important needs that need to be looked after would be things like range of motion while running because the difference between running on a treadmill or an indoor track does make a significant difference when you're outside running on various surfaces. Most people don't realize that your foot can conform to a certain type of terrain which could introduce the possibility of initiating planter fasciitis in both or one foot which can have a significant impact on your performance. For those people that regularly exercise just a little bit of tweaking in 90 minutes and make a significant difference in their overall seasonal performance and injury reduction.

Well we were on the topic of sports I think it's important to take a moment to discuss sports massage to help clarify for people what it really is. Sports massage has a main goal of helping athletes maintain and increase their level of performance through the massaging of the body it is separate and distinct from injury recovery as well as performance based muscle building and toning which falls more under the realm of personal training. In sports massage we look at three distinct categories of work each with a unique purpose which is commonly misunderstood by the public. The first being pre-event: this category of sports massage has a very specific goal of getting muscles ready for immediate use often times done before marathon within 20 minutes of starting your run it's a vigorous fast massage intended to wake up the central nervous system and get the muscles ready to work intensely. The second category of sports massage is called a post event: post event allows the body to wind down from intense physical activity and is often seen again at the end of a marathon where you'll see runners working with a therapist to slowly and more rhythmically apply pressure to major muscle groups to give the body to signal that it's time to stop the physical activity this helps prevent cramping and usually is accompanied by some stretching because once the muscles cool down that's when your most prone to damage. The last category of sports massage is typically referred to as maintenance massage: this form of massage helps address the minor injuries or soreness that can come from training typically done with your personal trainer or on your own. This last category is the one that is the most understood because it's most often what people want when they say they want a sports massage not understanding how important the other two categories are. 

I hope that this very brief overview helps give you a better understanding of spring sports and bodywork.