What is Sports Massage?

Sports Massage is a special form of massage that is typically used before, during, and after athletic events.
The purpose of sports massage is to prepare the athlete for peak performance, to drain away fatigue, to relieve swelling, to reduce muscle tension, to promote flexibility and to prevent injuries.
The main difference between sports massage and other massage techniques is that it directly targets and reduces tension in muscles and joints that are affected by athletic use and injury.


Why Sports Massage is Important To Runners?

A Sports Massage is especially important for runners who run more than 15 miles a week. The more miles you run, the more strain your muscles are under and the more beneficial sports massage is. Incorporating sports massage into your training schedule will help you train optimally.

Sports Massage is important to runners for many reasons. Some of these reasons being;
1. Reduces muscle inflammation;
2. Reduces muscle soreness (DOMS);
3. Flushes out any remaining lactic or carbonic acid
4. Reduces muscle tension;
5. Promotes muscle flexibililty;
6. Promotes healthy muscle development by stripping & stretching the fibers individually;
7. Increases muscle recovery time;
8. Increases mental alertness;
9. Reduces muscle fatigue, and cramping;
10. Decreases your chance of developing a muscle injury.

Massage immediately before and after an event will also help reduce the muscle spasms that can occur with vigorous exercise.
Ring The girls at White Stone to book your pre and post Marathon Massage.

Sciatic Pain

Most of us have either had sciatic pain ourselves or have at least known someone who has. It's not nice!!! The pain may be described as tingling or numbness through the buttock and sometimes can be bad enough to follow right down the nerve and into the leg, even down into the foot. This pain is caused by pressure being put on the sciatic nerve. Sciatic pain is just one of those types of pains that just should never be ignored. Once this type of pain sets in it is always advised to see a physiotherapist, osteopath or chiropractor as to rule out any most sinister issues such as a slipped disc or arthritis of the spine.

Poor posture, muscle strains, pregnancy or even just being over weight can be key factors in setting this type of nerve pain off in the first place (excluding arthritis). The good news is that in most cases a semi regular soft tissue massage can be the key in eliminating this type of pain out of your life for good. Prevention is always better then the cure. For more information on sciatic pain or how remedial massage can help you please email us your questions to info@whitestonemassage.com.au

Heres to your health

Headaches

Many of us have had the misfortune of suffering through a headache. There are a wide variety of intensities and types of headaches ie; cluster, cervicogenic and migraines (aka a world of hate). Many people think that stress is the main cause of their pain and yes they are correct in an indirect why. When we are stressed one of the first things that goes is our posture. The more stress we take on the greater the "weight of the world" is on our shoulders. Poor posture causes muscle strain and tension as a result many of we experience referred muscle pain. This pain can be felt through the forehead, behind the eyes, around the temples, across the face and even at the top of the head and around the ears. Some of us even clench our teeth while stressed causing more muscular issues through the jaw. All fun stuff.

The Remedy? Believe it or not but a good remedial massage from someone who is capable of treating the front of the neck is one of the best things you can do for yourself, along with isolating stretches of course. A regular massage can also in fact help to avoid these types of muscular tension and pain altogether. As the trigger point picture shows us the front of the neck is responsible for a large amount of pain. Think about it..... have you ever thought to yourself, man the front of my neck hurts?? Of course you haven't. By the time these muscles get tight we have already changed our posture to compensate for the muscular tension. A remedial massage can help to elongate the muscle and in time help to improve our overall posture. Now isn't that something we would all love?

Pregnancy Massage

Being pregnant is a time in a woman’s life when there is a whirlwind of changes occurring. Whether they are happening for the first time or not it is a massive time of change.

Pregnancy for anyone can be a stressful time, an enlightening experience, or a series of both. Fortunately, there are a multitude of services available to you at this time, including remedial massage.

We all know that a regular massage has its benefits; improved relaxation, decreased muscle tension, deceased pain in affected areas, as well as aiding in the removal of toxins through stimulation of the lymphatic system, just to name a few. Along with these benefits a pregnancy massage has its own special benefits. A regular massage throughout your pregnancy has been shown to help decrease anxiety, lymphatic swelling, lower the neonatal stress hormones, help combat postural deviations brought about by carrying the extra weight, it can improve maternal mood, as well as neonatal health and development.

At White Stone we use a special pregnancy table (allowing you to comfortably position yourself face down or on your tummy) to help to insure Mum’s comfort at all times. The girls here take that little bit extra time to insure that all is well throughout the entire treatment. Expecting Mum’s are also able to enjoy the experience with the added bonus of naturally inducing the little one by using the relating trigger points found around the lower legs and feet (ends up to be an amazing foot massage).

Because your health isn’t self-indulgence……
It’s self preservation.

joanna's muay thai fight

Fight update:
joanna fought a tough fight on saturday april 10th in Beenleigh QLD. The fight went for five hard two minute rounds. and was a close match the whole way through. It ended up in a draw decision between the judges. Looking forward to a rematch in the near future. Joanna would like to thank everyone that came out to support her. It was a great night of fun, and entertainment.

How massage can make you a better athlete

Training and sport take an extreme amount of wear and tear on a person's body; physically, mentally and emotionally. Weither it is conditions from injuries, stress, nerves, energy, or muscle soreness, massage can help you stay focused, healthy and recover faster. It can make you stronger, faster and more efficent. Deep tissue massage causes the pores in tissue membranes to open, enabling fluids and nutrients to pass through. This helps remove waste products such as lactic acid and encourage the muscles to take up oxygen and nutrients which help them recover quickly and break down scar tissue - Scar tissue is the result of previous injuries or trauma and can effect muscle, tendons and ligaments. Old scare tissue through out the muscles can lead to inflexible tissues that are prone to re-injury and general pain.

When to get a massage?
This can be broken down into pre, and post event.


Pre sports event- Before your event, is one of the best times to prepare your body,
Reasons to get a massage before:

Maintain the body generally in better condition.
Prevent injuries and loss of mobility.
Cure and restore mobility to injured muscle tissue.
Prevent injuries
Decrease stress
Increase circulation
Promote general wellness
Pain reduction
Relaxation
Decreases tension
Boost performance
Increase flexibility, mobitily, and joint function

Post event- After the event, great way to recover quickly
Reasons to get a massage after:

Same as pre
Decrease DOMS, delayed muscle soreness
Speed up injury recovery time
Gets new blood cells to the areas that need them
Helps with lactic acid buildup



Quote of the day
" an under-trained athlete is better then a over trained athlete, because a under trained athlete has reserves and the overtrained athlete has used them all up"
So listen to your body, take time to recovery, rest, and get a massage. Your body will thank you for it and you will be rewarded with better preformance and a long lasting career in your sport.

Remedial Massage today is becoming more and more recognised as a legitimate way of repairing muscles and tendons damaged through over use, trauma or bad posture. Remedial massage involves a number of applied techniques involving deep pressure, trigger points released and longtitiudinal strokes on shortened and tight muscles to allow proper function and restore muscle strength.

Benefits of Remedial Massage

Key benefits of Remedial Massage include: the stimulation to the blood supply allowing toxins in the muscles to be removed; the calming of the peripheral nervous system to ease pain and discomfort; and the toning and relaxing of muscles to improve joint mobility. An improvement to the health of the cells, the repairing of tissues, and the easing of stiffness and tension can also be experienced through therapeutic relaxation.

Muscular and skeletal dysfunctions often addressed with Remedial Massage include Fibrositis, Spondylitis, Arthritis, frozen shoulder, muscular cramps, Whiplash, muscular atrophy, sports and dancing injuries.

Sessions usually take 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the whether the practitioner will just address a specific area or give a whole body massage. As oil is used, it is necessary for the patient to be unclothed for the treatment.
Why Should Everyone Get a regular massage?

Tired, sore and stressed out?
Most people would agree a massage makes them feel good. But many probably don't realise exactly how good a regular massage is for their overall health. How about if they knew massage could improve performance, aid recovery, prevent and eliminate injuries, reduce stress and even enhance metabolism and circulation! With so many alternative health treatments available it's little wonder people get confused about where to go when they're not feeling the best. But, while new health therapies continue to emerge, think about this.the Chinese began using massage to heal the human body as long ago as 5,000BC and it's still being used today. Now there has to be something to be said for that.

What is a Remedial Massage???

Most people are a bit confused when it comes to what exactly falls under the category of a Remedial Massage. There is now doubt that a remedial massage is perfect for any athlete, weekend warrior or anyone else how has muscular pain, but why is that? What is it about a massage that is so dame good for us? The first thing we need to realize is what exactly a massage aims to do. A good massage will aim to treat conditions such as localized soreness, tightness, most types of muscular pain as well as new or old muscular injuries, by reducing the amount of waste product within the muscle. This is done through stretching the muscular fibers individually and stripping the waste product out of them manually. This process breaks up old structural/scare tissue patterns and to allow the free flow of nutrients and oxygen to the soft tissues. A remedial massage is a firm usually deep treatment which aims to affect all muscle layers, ligaments, tendons as well as connective tissue.

A muscle injury can be generated by strenuous OR repetitive physical activity. Which means that it doesn't always have to be one great event or action that throws everything out. It can be as easy as sitting at the same desk and in the same posture day in and day out that can cause the muscle soreness. A repetitive strain is usually a type of postural deviation that can come on as a dull ache and then can progress into something a bit more severe.

Although this type of treatment is know to be a bit uncomfortable, we realize that not everyone is training to be an elite athlete and so the pressure and techniques used will vary to insure you individual comfort. It will leave you feeling fantastic and totally ready to take on the world! Short term pain for long term gain!