Mark Fenn - Sports Massage Therapist

05/11/2025

Sports Massage Therapy – Central Telford & Mobile

Supporting recovery, movement, performance, rehab and those massages that leave us feeling relaxed and ready to go about our days to come through hands-on treatment and practical advice.

Whether it’s:

Tightness or soreness from training

Ongoing aches affecting daily movement

Pre-event or post-event treatment

To support rehab

Or simply taking time to reset and recover

You can book or contact me directly:
📞 07980 425 458
📧 mark@msffitness.co.uk

🌐 www.msffitness.co.uk

Professional treatment in a calm, private studio environment or in your own home or place of work.

I am here when you need me.

Mark

MSF Fitness based in Telford, is a private studio offering personal training, coaching, rehabilitation and sports massage.

20/07/2025

Post Appointment Reflection: Shoulder Soreness Case

On Saturday I worked with a professional athlete experiencing some ongoing shoulder soreness. The appointment went well, all the techniques applied provided the expected outcomes in terms of sensation, feed back, relief and improved tissue quality.

What became clear during the session is that there was a previous shoulder injury a few years ago which was had no structured rehabbed at the time but had improved significantly. Although it hasn’t flared up since it’s a reminder that past injuries can sometimes contribute to current issues even subtly.

During the appointment we used a combination of manual therapy and cupping, particularly a gliding cupping technique that I find effective for lifting and mobilising the tissue while also allowing me to watch for any change in tissue colour and to feel for restrictions while gaining feed back from my client.

Following the session I’ve written a post massage review for the athlete outlining key notes from the appointment as well as some mobility drills and targeted rehab guidance they can incorporate into their strength work going forward. Depending on their schedule I may see them once more before they head home.

I did offer to travel to America to continue providing sports massage 😎

It’s a good example of how history, current training demands and ongoing care all play a role in keeping athletes performing at their best.

19/07/2025

All set up for my Saturday afternoon/evening appointments and today I will be welcoming a profession athlete from America.

A sore/painful shoulder is affecting training so while they are visiting the UK I will work with them to help them return to training.

If necessary I will refer them to physio or similar health professional but for now a sports massage will be a good starting point.

16/07/2025

My previous post spoke about therapy and then progressing with therapy when injuries, soreness and discomfort are present.

The post nudged a response and this morning I worked with a client who’s had calf soreness, pain and has prevented training consistently.

Sports massage has been used for about 6 months and although helps initially it hasn’t provided a positive long term outcome.

So we know sports massage helps but only short term for this person.

During the appointment I did provide 10 minutes of sports massage because I wanted to get hands on with how the calf’s felt and the response various techniques provided.

The outcome was all normal from a touch point but there was a clear difference is each calf. One was much bigger and had better muscle mass and the other was just not the same.

This had not been picked up previously so this opened a new door.

The next 40 minutes we spent in the gym working through some nice exercises and it was clear left and right leg strength was very different.

Both legs were not providing the reps we might aim to see based on evidence such as single leg calf raises and during glute, hamstring and quad focus there is a clear lack of strength.

This is all good and positive because we now have a plan on how to progress alongside a regular sports massage which they will have from their present sports massage therapist.

Sometimes if we book a sports massage that is what you get. Makes sense right?

It’s through my work as a sports massage therapist and a personal trainer I bring the 2 together.

I have provided 4 key exercises to be completed 3 times a week and have home and gym based options.

More importantly they have shown me how to do them so I confident their time will be well spent and if they have any questions they can drop me a message.

I’m really pleased my post helped 1 person and if I do that I’ve done my job.

15/07/2025

Are you having therapy or working on progressing?

I provide both and it’s important to understand which one is required.

I often provide pre and post event sports massage alongside what I class as a maintenance massage which is nice to have, often planned around training schedules and take place regularly.
This is what I call therapy, nothing else is needed other than the appointment.

So what about when it’s more than the above? Soreness, restriction, that sense of tightness or even pain. It might even be due to an injury.

This is were we need to be proactive.

The appointment provides the sports massage and the guidance to what can be done between appointments. It’s this bit that often can be missing. The bit between appointments.

During the next appointment we catch up on what has gone well, not so well and the process continues.

Relying on the appointment as all that is required probably won’t see any long term change.

It’s a big like thinking the therapy should be painfull or being pulled around is a good thing but come a gym session as soon as we feel a little soreness we stop. It just doesn’t make sense, we are ok with someone causing us discomfort but we wouldn’t challenge ourselves?

Therapy often gets spoken about like a badge of honour based on the level of discomfort. For me I see this as a negative and would question the process if there is one.

The process delivers the outcome.

The process needs a plan.