Having had a keen interest in Athletics and being involved in various aspects of competing and working with horses, I am fully aware of the physical toll it takes on ones body. However it is not only physical manual strain that initiates problems in the human body, driving sitting and every day tasks as well as the demands of ageing all adds and creates aches and pains that start to become a nuisance and can start to hinder our way of movement. Sports massage like other massage helps to improve the suppleness and flexibility of our muscles and joints. It improves Lymphatic and blood circulation and aids the body's systems in functioning at it's OPTIMUM level. Sports massage enables one to work deeper and has more specific effects and benefits. It is used as treatment and prevention of injuries, as part of training programme's, rehabilitation and part of a Pre-event (warm up) or Post-event (warm down). There is considered to be around 206 bones and over 600 skeletal muscles in the body, muscle tissue accounts for approximately 40% of our total body weight. Exercise, Lifestyle and accidents large and small all have profound effects on the development and strength of our bones, and development of our muscles. Massage has always been used as an aid to health, and by all manner of people. Whether the object is to use more specific massage techniques to attend to specific dysfunctions and injuries, or whether the object is to generate a relaxation effect, the therapy is more than beneficial and always will be considered so. To put it in a nutshell as WALTER L. LARIMORE MD (in Mellion 1994) stated,
MASSAGE OR SOFT TISSUE MANIPULATION SEEMS TO BENEFIT ATHLETES THERAPEUTICALLY, PROPHYLACTICALLY, MECHANICALLY, PHYSIOLOGICALLY and PSYCHOLOGICALLY.
