Tight hamstrings for football
The start of the football season always brings in clients with tight or painful hamstrings. We offer a two pronged approach, many clients come in when they have pain - our initial treatment would be to help treat the pain with deep myofascial treatments from Peta or a good strong, targeting sports massage from Tammy. While this one-off treatment will help with the short-term pain or tightness, overcoming the long-term binding needs a little more investment in our services. For instance, one of our injured players started with 35 degrees of flexibility- that is less than half of the range the hamstrings can do. This player invested in some weekly sessions and then moved to every two weeks. As part of the treatment plan Peta explained the process of changing the length of the hamstrings, how long it would take and taught the client effective fascial stretches. After two months the client improved their range of movement by 10 degrees. This was enough to prevent them from constantly pulling a hamstring during a match.
Our modern mindset is to want instant service and for one treatment to fix us. Investing a little more time and money into getting a series of sports massages or myofascial release with a therapist who has a treatment strategy planned out for you can often save money in the long run. This is the method Peta uses and why you see the reviews you do on Google from her London sports massage clients.
Marathon runners
Late season marathons and half marathons are more popular and with the increase in events in recent years our London sports massage clinic in Moorgate takes in many runners at this time of year. Returning clients usually come in for a pre-marathon treatment during their taper period to get their legs ready to run the distance. Those struggling with tightness or minor niggles come in just after their last bug run. This gives us a chance to tackle any running injuries with enough time to get their bodies to heal themselves before the marathon or for us to offer a second treatment should they need it. Those with tired legs only generally come in the week before. Part of Peta’s treatment strategy is to help her clients understand when it’s best to come in for a session to optimise their time and budget.
On occasion we get a new client in a desperate state the week before the marathon, as human nature dictates, we sometime hope the problem will resolve itself, as the big day looms and the problem remains, clients come in to see Peta based on her ability to resolve problems quickly and effectively. While it’s recommended to come in earlier, it’s not necessarily the end of your race if you need a running injury to be fixed the week before. The number of stories Peta could tell of injured runners coming in the week before could probably fill a book, so you’re not alone if you hope an injury will resolve itself. Some do, some don’t and the problem with marathons comes from being on a fixed date with a hefty training load. I’d recommend anyone doing a marathon thinks about setting aside a small budget for injury treatments.
Skiing preparation
While the weather remained warm late into the Autumn, we did see some clients to get them ready for the skiing season. Calves tend to be the main area for skiers, but hamstrings and quads also get more attention, we also look at other areas such as lower back and adductors if clients struggle with limited range of movement. If we get a chance to work with skiers earlier in the season, we look at getting them doing some remedial muscle strengthening and doing some weights in the gym. When the snow is prime and you want to ski for 8 hours with suffering with the DOMs too much, some weights can help.
Longer term pain relief vs quick relief (Peta’s experience)
We’re always keen to help clients optimise their budgets and understand the urgency to get a massage on the very same day the pain starts. With so many options now available to get a sports massage, you don’t need to wait a day or two. It’s a common trend now and when we are fully booked many new enquiries will go elsewhere. It’s fairly common for us to find those people coming back to see us because their problem wasn’t fixed by another clinic. I know this myself, suffering from long term shoulder pain after a collarbone fracture altered my biomechanics, I need someone to release some key areas around my shoulder. I was struggling to get into see Tammy in our clinic because we were fully booked. I tried some sports massage near me. I directed the therapists fairly specifically to the problem areas that needed release. These generally tend to be those areas many sports massage course skim over in their teaching. They are key areas to get the shoulder working correctly. All of the people I saw did very little on the area I asked to be released. They all wanted to treat what they were comfortable with. One therapist spent most of the hour session either putting massage location on his hands or adjusting the height of the couch, while he did manage to hit the right areas he spend so little time on the area I left with little long term relief. I gave up and managed to rearrange my clinic times to book in with Tammy who works for me. Relief at long last. I should add here the areas I needed treated do not hurt in any way, however when the therapist does hit the right spot the pain in other areas releases. Whilst I never keen to use painkillers too frequently, I will use them to calm the pain until I can get in to see a therapist who understands what it takes to effective treat soft tissue injuries.
If you are a therapist reading this to try and learn from my posts - I will be starting a fascial training clinic - you can register here to be kept up-to-date.
If you suffer ongoing muscle pain or flexibility issues, drop us a line, we'd be happy to advise if we can help - my reputation relies on me fixing problems, if it is something I can't help with I will let you know - please get in touch to book in - I’d be delighted to help you.
On top of our usual back and shoulder pain, we welcomed back some of our summertime athletes started to do core and remedial muscle training in the off season to build core and strength for when the milage ramps us. This month our sports massage clinic saw clients from Farringdon, Bank, Moorgate, Spitalfields, Barbican, Old Street, London Bridge, Waterloo, Paddington and Oxford.