Massages are usually seen as quite a luxury thing. You pay for a luxury spa experience to get a lovely relaxing massage with all the nice smelling oils – it’s a big treat! However, they’re something that you should be using almost every single day, especially if you work out.
The very nature of a massage makes it a wonderful tool to help you during your fitness journey. For the most part, we associate massages with muscle recovery. Yes, they do play a big role here, but you can also use them before your workouts. Below, you’ll see exactly how to use massages as part of your pre and post-workout routine:
Pre-Workout Massages
Firstly, why would you use a massage before a workout?
Well, think about what happens when you massage your muscles. Essentially, you encourage blood to flow into the muscles, which helps to alleviate stiffness and soreness. This is actually super helpful before a workout as you’re basically warming up. In fact, giving your muscles a massage with a foam roller or a massage device will be infinitely better than stretching them.
This is something you should do when you’ve got changed and are ready to begin your warmup routine. Start by massaging whichever muscles are being worked on today – again, foam rollers are great for self-massages, and you can spend around 30 seconds on each muscle. Already, you should feel more limber and less stiff. From here, you can proceed to do some light warmup sets before jumping into your workout.
Pre-workout massages can help you avoid injuries like muscle tears or strains. They prime you for the task ahead, so start adding them to your routine.
Post-Workout Massages
Everyone knows that massaging your muscles is a great element in every post-workout recovery routine. It does an excellent job of improving circulation, so your blood can carry more oxygen to the muscles and help them recover. At the same time, improving circulation allows blood to remove things like lactic acid that builds up in your muscles, causing excessive soreness the next day.
Massaging can also help to elongate the muscles and stop them from feeling all tight and constricted, which is also a cause of post-workout soreness. Once more, a foam roller works really well here, as do different massage devices. If you work out regularly, or if you’re an athlete, it could be worth getting some physiotherapy for a proper sports massage now and then. These massages are designed to help correct any problems in your body and improve your muscle pliability and joint maneuverability.
Overall, pre-workout massages are essential for getting your body ready to exercise. Without them, you run the risk of hurting yourself because your muscles aren’t adequately warmed up. Likewise, post-workout massages are critical for recovery. They do a fantastic job of lengthening tight muscles to return them to their normal state. At the same time, post-workout massages help to remove toxins and things that cause soreness.
So, add both of these to your overall fitness routine and reap the rewards!
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