If you trace most professional sports back far enough, you will come across their humble beginnings rooted in peach baskets basketball , moonshine running NASCAR , and wagon wheel spokes baseball. Today, however, is a different story. Sports leagues are multi-billion dollar affairs with multi-million dollar athletes. With that much money on the line, keeping the athletes in tip-top shape is of the utmost importance.
Most professional sports teams have spared no expense on their training and recovery facilities and offerings to keep their athletes performing at their best. Included as part of these offerings for just about every pro sports team are massage therapists. But just how important is massage therapy for a professional athlete , and, for massage therapists, how does working on professional athletes differ from their traditional, everyday clients?
One of the biggest differences between a professional athlete and a traditional massage client is body type. However, Cannady notes that just because someone may have a lot more muscle mass than someone else, there are still similarities with how they carry tension. The shoulders and lower back, the hips, and the glutes are tight on just about everyone.
Another difference between working with professional athletes vs traditional clients is in the work environment itself. The environment is usually private.
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Whereas in sports they have one big room for treatment which can include massage therapists, physical therapists, athletic trainers, and chiropractors. A postgame massage session is usually an assessment massage to determine if any damage to the tissue occurred. Many techniques, such as cupping , stretching , effleurage, and petrissage are used both pregame and postgame with slight differences depending on the issues at hand. Something else that massage therapists need to consider for some sports in order to provide the best treatment is what position the athlete plays.
