LM Sports Massage

11/12/2025

L M Sports Massage & Soft Tissue Therapy

Brain health lies in physical health & massage plays a big part in helping to promote this:

Massage has several benefits on the brain -
It stimulates serotonin and dopamine (and increases these by as much as 30%) & , neurotransmitters all known to stabilize mood, while decreasing cortisol, a stress hormone.
It increases activity of the parasympathetic nervous system, which acts automatically to calm the body and brain during stress.
It enhances brain wave activity - enhancing the ability to focus and concentrate, either on a sporting event or an academic exercise.
Massage can help to reduce the pain signals sent to the brain, and pain is considered by some schools of thought to be the brain's option on the matter. Therefore by reducing pain signals sent to the brain, we calm the brain's alarm system, leading to a more comfortable body.
It improves sleep, promoting quality rest and well being, recovering energy levels.

By addressing and improving posture and the muscles responsible for this, the circulatory, nervous and respiratory systems all function better, ensuring the better health of the brain and longer term may well assist in the off setting of some illnesses associated with older age.

04/12/2025

L M Sports Massage and Soft Tissue Therapy

Your body will respond to everything running through your mind, good or bad.

Signs of this may be:
Breath holding
Jaw clenching
Shoulder bracing
Lower back pain
Aching hips
Shortness of breath for no obvious reason
Heavy legs
Tired, aching feet
Restlessness
Feeling as if you are bottling things up and a feeling of frustration

What can you do about these things?
It sounds easy to say "change your mindset," but we all know that this is not something that happens just like that. Try small changes that you can implement daily, little and often:

Breathe out
Drop your shoulders
Move your head from side to side
Unclench your fists and jaw

Move little and often if stuck in a constant work position for many hours at a time
When you get up (ideally every 20 minutes or so, but if not possible, as often as you can) bounce on the balls of your feet, swing your arms about (space permitting), breathe out.

When timing permits, get outside for a brisk walk, even a few minutes, once round the block will do you some good. Try to keep to your exercise program, tricky at this time of the year, but stick with it as much as possible.

Try to drink enough water throughout the day, lots of little sips.

Ensure that you are eating well and sleeping better.

Booking a massage or soft tissue therapy session will work wonders.

26/11/2025

L M Sports Massage & Soft Tissue Therapy

What happens in one, is happening in the other two.
The connection between the Jaw, Pelvis and Feet is undeniable, so common habits that you might be adopting in one area, will have a knock on effect.
Eg, chewing on one side of your mouth, leaning on one leg when standing, locking out your knees and standing on your heels.

All of us, if the truth be told do all of these things at one point or another, and once in a while, no harm done. However when any or all of these postural habits become the norm, this sets up the foundation of dysfunction and eventually weakness and pain.

Without trying to make life a misery of checklists and "am I doing this or aren't I?" which is guaranteed to take the fun out of anything, just try to we aware of how your body feels.
When possible, breathe out, drop your shoulders, turn your head, relax your jaw, rotate your body from side to side, wiggle your hips, unlock your knees, stand on both feet evenly and try to engage the three points of your feet. You don't have to do all of them, even just doing one, will go a long way to establishing a more harmonious living posture.

Struggling? Give us a shout and let us give you a hand.

23/11/2025

L M Sports Massage & Soft Tissue Therapy

"Use it, or lose it, it's that simple."

Have you ever started singing a song and then can't remember how it finishes? Spent years at school learning French or Latin and 30 years later, be surprised that you can't string together the most simple of sentences?

So why be surprised when you realise that you can't do a movement that you haven't done for 30 years, the principal is the same. Regular gentle movements will keep you able to move well, this is what we call quality of life and independence.

Soft tissue therapy is a fantastic way of helping you to regain range of movement and a happier you.

22/11/2025

19/11/2025

L M Sports Massage & Soft Tissue Therapy

**** NEWS FLASH ****
It's a bit parky at the moment.

Rather than letting your shoulders move up into your coat collar and scarf, move them, do some shoulder shrugs and circle your arms, twist your body from side to side. Jump from foot to foot.

Breathe out.
Relax your jaw.
Unclench your fists.

If you are heading to the gym, take some time to warm your body up, take all of your joints through a range of movement, eg - do some deep squats with no weights, do some high knees, do jumping jacks or if bouncing around isn't your thing, get on the tread mill or exercise bike, the rower - whatever works for you and gets everything moving.

Don't forget, drink some water, or hot tea, little and often. Just because it's cold, it doesn't mean that you can't get dehydrated. Remember when you can see your breath, that is all water and if it is in the air, it is not in you.

13/11/2025

L M Sports Massage and Soft Tissue Therapy

Shallow breathing significantly impacts both physical and mental health, resulting in issues such as increased stress, anxiety, muscle fatigue and reduced oxygen intake.

Physical Effects:
Muscle Tension & Inefficiency: Shallow breathing often leads to tightness in the neck and upper chest muscles, which can result in discomfort and reduced range of motion over time. More often than not, we start to see a developing head forward posture and rounding of the upper back.

Impaired Immune Function: the lymphatic system becomes sluggish, which weakens the immune system.

Increased Heart Rate: This type of breathing can trigger the body’s stress response, leading to an elevated heart rate and potentially contributing to cardiovascular issues over time.

Reduced Oxygenation: This limits the oxygen intake and leads to symptoms like dizziness, fatigue, and cognitive difficulties due to inadequate oxygen supply to the brain.

Sleep Disruptions: sleep patterns become broken, which can lead to chronic fatigue.

Mental Effects:
Increased Anxiety and Stress: this is linked to anxiety, increasing feelings of panic and distress which in turn lead to shallow breathing exacerbating anxiety.

Cognitive Impairment: The lack of sufficient oxygen can affect cognitive functions, leading to difficulties in concentration and memory.

Mood Disturbances: Chronic shallow breathing can contribute to mood swings and emotional instability, as the body remains in a heightened state of stress.

Long-term Consequences include chronic stress, cardiovascular problems, and respiratory conditions. Practicing deep breathing techniques can help mitigate these effects, promoting relaxation and better oxygenation throughout the body.

In our treatments we are able to ease the physical manifestations and help draw your attention to how this is affecting your overall health and well-being and give simple exercises for you to follow.

13/11/2025

L M Sports Massage and Soft Tissue Therapy

Shallow breathing significantly impacts both physical and mental health, resulting in issues such as increased stress, anxiety, muscle fatigue and reduced oxygen intake.

Physical Effects:
Muscle Tension & Inefficiency: Shallow breathing often leads to tightness in the neck and upper chest muscles, which can result in discomfort and reduced range of motion over time. More often than not, we start to see a developing head forward posture and rounding of the upper back.

Impaired Immune Function: the lymphatic system becomes sluggish, which weakens the immune system.

Increased Heart Rate: This type of breathing can trigger the body's stress response, leading to an elevated heart rate and potentially contributing to cardiovascular issues over time.

Reduced Oxygenation: This limits the oxygen intake and leads to symptoms like dizziness, fatigue, and cognitive difficulties due to inadequate oxygen supply to the brain.

Sleep Disruptions: sleep patterns become broken, which can lead to chronic fatigue.

Mental Effects:
Increased Anxiety and Stress: this is linked to anxiety, increasing feelings of panic and distress which in turn lead to shallow breathing exacerbating anxiety.

Cognitive Impairment: The lack of sufficient oxygen can affect cognitive functions, leading to difficulties in concentration and memory.

Mood Disturbances: Chronic shallow breathing can contribute to mood swings and emotional instability, as the body remains in a heightened state of stress.

Long-term Consequences include chronic stress, cardiovascular problems, and respiratory conditions. Practicing deep breathing techniques can help mitigate these effects, promoting relaxation and better oxygenation throughout the body.

In our treatments we are able to ease the physical manifestations and help draw your attention to how this is affecting your overall health and well-being and give simple exercises for you to follow.

11/11/2025

L M Sports Massage and Soft Tissue Therapy

WHAT IF.....

You prioritised quality food, quality movement and quality sleep.

We can't help you with the first one but we can help with the other two.

Massage and soft tissue therapy are exceptionally effective ways of improving and sustaining fluid movement and achieving a healthy range of movement.

The effects of a massage have a deeply profound effect on improving quality of sleep.

Two Out of Three Ain't Bad.

07/11/2025

L M Sports Massage and Soft Tissue Therapy

By implementing tried and tested basic principals into your fitness regime, you will find that you achieve your goals with a stronger, healthier body. However even the best of us, struggle with aches and pains and on occasion injuries.

To try to mitigate against these, ensure that you warm up, mobilize and cool down, eat, hydrate and sleep well - in conjunction with these, book yourself in for a monthly massage and stop the niggles before they start.

https://www.lmsportsmassage.co.uk

05/11/2025

L M Sports Massage and Soft Tissue Therapy

Massage and Soft Tissue Therapy are highly effective ways of improving the quality and range of movement as well as decreasing any associated pain or discomfort.

If you find yourself avoiding a movement or action or are aware of that you struggle with a movement, get in touch and let us see if we can help.

02/11/2025

L M Sports Massage and Soft Tissue Therapy

The weekend is for most of us, a chance to sit down and have a rest after a busy week, and now that we are well and truly into autumn, we are probably spending more time inside and reaching for our phones for a relaxing hour of scrolling. Indeed you may well be doing this now - but think for a moment and look at the diagram which shows the force in weight on your spine as your head drops forward. This is the fastest way to headaches, back and neck pain, anxiety, jaw tension and believe it or not, hip pain - this is just to mention just a few.

Listen we are not trying to say, don't scroll on your phone - we all do it, but try to limit the time into small chunks and make a point of getting up and moving every few minutes, even if it is to just breathe out, drop your shoulders and move your head and neck.

Boring tip - the more upright and "uncomfortable" the chair - i.e. not the sofa, the better your posture will be and the more inclined you will be to put your phone down after a few minutes and move around. 🙂

If you do have a lapse and after several hours on your phone your back and neck are hurting, have a hot bath and try to gently move everything - failing that we are on hand to help - get booked in and we won't judge.