The key to less injuries is prevention. Information for athletes and Sports Masssage

 We all know the primary work of the circulatory system is to push your blood around your body.   But the other job of the circulatory system is to deliver essential nutrients to your body tissues and to work in conjunction with your lymph system to remove waste products.  So how does that all work?  Your blood is pumped by your heart;  it moves through your body, and when your heart rate goes up due to stress, activity, or receiving a massage, it moves at an even faster rate, with more pressure.  Your lymph system, on the other hand, is completely independent of your heart and works on muscle pumping  to move fluid and broken cells through the tiny collection vessels in your body.  When you move your body more, and your body is warmer, the rate of movement and collection goes up.  But that is in a perfect world.  What happens when you are trying to push blood through the blood vessels and lymph through the collection vessels when you have been in heavy training?  When you are tight and sore?  Essentially you have a bottle neck--there are too many cars on the highway, and not enough space to get through.  No matter how hard you push, which nutrients you eat,  how hard you train, or  how much you move--unless there is enough space within the tissue to get that stuff there, you will  be more prone to injury and fatigue. To compound matters, when you are injured, it is going to take longer to heal.

Tissue often changes by means of inflammation.  In some cases this is not a problem, but too much inflammation is bad.  Inflammation is a generalized first response to injury, and signals the body to lay down non-functional layers of tissue in order to support the body structure. Your body’s response to any kind of unknown stress is to stabilize. It is very important to understand that  your body sees training as a form of stress and your body’s response to that stress is to lay down thicker tracts of tissue through  an inflammatory process.  Those tracts are less functional than the original ones and will thicken along the fascia trains already in existence, reducing fluid flow, which robs your body of the things it needs to make you a top performer.  Thicker trains means more compression, more inflammation, and  less movement of fluid, and that means more injury, slower healing and less performance. 

By icing any areas  where unusual heat or soreness are present (thus limiting the amount of inflammation you endure while exercising), you can help your body defend against excessive inflammatory processes.  Some people are also more prone to inflammation than others and might also benefit from a low inflammation diet, which is a way of eating that limits or reduces your reaction to inflammation.  Compression socks, and KT/or Rock tape can also be helpful by limiting swelling and/or encouraging lymph flow in order to minimize damage in an event.  Any area that is prone to shock, friction, load bearing or overuse is at risk. Take steps to give yourself the best chance to heal by learning to stretch and realign these areas appropriately prior to exercising. The best medicine is prevention. It is far easier and far cheaper to limit inflammation than to require extensive treatment to correct a problem in full flair…and perhaps even risk missing the big event entirely.

For More information  on Sports Massage and how you can prevent your own injury's you can visit me at www.bodymechnaicsnyc.com or book a treatment. If you are interested in learning more on the topic of how your body works, how to prevent injury, increase your recovery times and get relief for FREE,  I am speaking at Jack Rabbit sports this month at Self-Massage Clinic here is the info:

Jack rabbit sports 14th st. Sept. 18, 2013 -7pm  Curious how to expedite recovery, increase performance, and decrease risk of injury? Body Mechanics NYC joins us to host a self-massage clinic at Jack Rabbit Sports 42 west 14th st. (between 5th and 6th). You'll learn which recovery tools work best for certain aggravations and how to use each properly. And by addressing discomfort immediately and effectively, you'll increase your chances of crossing the finish line injury-free.
 for more info on sports massage in NYC please check out our website