Sports therapy is for everyone, not just athletes

Is sports therapy for everyone?

I often hear people saying that sports massage is only for athletes. In traditional massage parlours (in Singapore), there are usually 3 types of massage offered - javanese/traditional massage, swedish massage and lastly sports massage. Individuals tend to shun away from sports massage thinking that it is too painful or not relaxing for them. A safer option for most individuals is Swedish Massage where the message and strokes applied tend to be gentle and more soothing.

That said, it is true that sports massage is not a relaxing massage session. The aim of sports massage is to apply intense pressure on tensed muscles in order to firstly, reduce the muscle tightness and improve mobility, and secondly, to increase the blood flood to that particular area in order to aid muscle recovery and relief muscle pain. Nonetheless muscles tightness and mobility issues are something that is commonly faced by the sedentary individuals, if not even more frequently than athletes as individuals with sedentary lifestyle lack movements that helps loosen the muscles on a daily basis.

Sports Therapy for Office Workers

I would recommend sports therapy for office workers as office workers tend to have a sedentary lifestyle for most parts of the day. Poor sitting posture and constant typing on the computer can put a strain on your neck and your trapezius as your body adopts an unnatural position for prolonged period of time. I would recommend office workers to do dynamic and static stretches from time to time to loosen up their muscles and allow blood flow to their muscles. Stretches are a good form of preventive measure to prevent long-term chronic physiologically pain.

Chronic pain can have long-term implication on an individual as it can affect your rest and sleep. Therapies such as dry cupping, IASTM and sports massage can help loosen this muscle so that you can have a restful sleep. Moreover sports therapies are found to be able to reduce anxiety levels and decrease overall neurological excitability that can affect one's rest.

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Sports Therapy for Blue Collar Workers and Labourers

Blue Collar Workers and labourers, on the contrary, are a lot more physically demanding that office workers. Individuals in the fields of construction, logistics, or maintenance tend to be on their feet most of the time and carrying or lugging heavy load with them from places to places. Such workers have better activity levels in general. Nonetheless, such high activity levels can add stress to your muscles and joints. Prolonged activities over time can even cause muscular imbalance that can lead to chronic muscle injuries. More worryingly, such workers rely on their body functions to execute their work and therefore they need to make sure that they do not succumb to any form of muscular injuries that may lead them to a lack of income as they are unable to do their work.

As a form care and maintenance, it is advisable for such workers to go for therapies to ensure that their body can continue to perform at its peak.

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In Summary

Sports Therapy is not limited to only athletes and any individuals can consider sports therapy as a form of care and treatment for themselves. Just like your car or your bike, you need to ensure that you constantly get it service and maintain so that it can have a longer performance life and continue to operate and perform at its peak. Nonetheless, maintaining the functionality of your body should not purely be reliant on just therapies. As an individual, you need to make sure you constantly keep a well-balanced diet and do some routine stretches or foam rolling exercise to continue having some mobility and flexibility with your body.