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Don’t let your body prevent you from performing your best!

08 Feb

Musclefix provides specific sports massage that will allow you to perform at your peak, without being hindered by injuries and allow you to train and recover as effectively as you can.

Sports massage has increasingly been used by athletes all over the world and is an integral part of any great training regime. It doesn’t matter if you’re an Olympian, elite athlete, amateur athlete or a weekend warrior, remedial massage can fix your aches and pains and allow you to perform at the level you should be.

There are three types of sports massage, each using different techniques and very different goals.

Pre-event massage helps prevent injury through warming up the muscles, increasing your flexibility and range of motion for optimum athletic performance, increasing blood and nutrient flow to muscles. Sports massage also reduces tension and anxiety and promotes psychological readiness, which can be a crucial factor in your sport.

Post-event massage reduces the impact of damage caused to the muscles during exercise. The swelling caused by tiny tears of muscle fibres is reduced along with easing your stressed muscles and aiding in the removal of lactic acid and other toxins. This damage usually results in soreness a day or two after exercise and we all know this as delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). Sports massage is proven to be effective in reducing the intensity and duration of DOMS which is great news for every sportsperson.

Maintenance massage is a daily routine for the best athletes in the world. Obviously daily massage isn’t practical/affordable for the average individual but getting regular massage once per week to every few weeks will keep the body in top condition. Maintenance massage will aid circulation and muscle performance, prevent overuse injuries and allow you to fight off injuries, train better and perform to your best.

 
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Posted in Massage, Massage Therapy, Massage Types, Sports Massage

 

How Sports Massage Can Help You to Achieve Your Best

15 Nov

The agony of da feetAre you serious about your chosen sport or activity?

If you aren’t having regular sports massage then it’s quite likely that you are missing the chance to reach your peak.

How often are you sore for several days after a hard session? Do you sometimes delay training or practice in favour of rest and recovery time?

Not only will massage increase your flexibility and therefore agility, it will greatly help in speeding your recovery from Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS).

DOMS is felt as the tenderness in your muscles that comes on the day after or a few days after hardcore or unaccustomed activity.

When we push our muscles hard, we cause microscopic damage to the muscle tissue.

A little bit of this is a good thing as it prompts our muscles to grow bigger and stronger.

Sometimes the muscle can take a few days to recover and sometimes we push ourselves too hard and are sore for a week.

This is where sports massage can be helpful and bring relief. If you are trying to excel in your sport or activity then it is important that you can train frequently.

Massage reduces the severity and duration of DOMS, helps maintain flexibility and smoothness of muscle tissue and can also help to prevent injury.

Sports massage is appropriate for increasing performance regardless of your sport or activity.

Whether it be Dancing, Bodybuilding, Walking, Martial Arts, Yoga, Pilates, Football, Cricket or something else, Remedial Massage will make it easier.

You’ll be able to increase your flexibility, reduce any pain, train and practice more, all of which will improve your power, form and therefore overall performance.

What’s involved in a sports massage?

It’s pretty similar to Remedial massage in that your therapist will discuss with you your sport and any areas of your body that you might be having trouble with.

He or she will develop an understanding of the biomechanical stresses that are being placed on your body and will massage and manipulate appropriate areas to leave your muscles and tendons supple and ready for action.

Techniques used will be types of kneading, deep strokes on varying angles, trigger point therapy and special stretches.

How many Sports Massage sessions will you need?

It really depends on you, the individual.Anything from once a month to once or twice a week.

Have a think about how much you like your sport or activity, whether you have any injuries holding you back and whether you want to be the absolute best you can be.

 
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Posted in Massage, Massage Therapy

 

The Piriformis Muscle: A major pain in the butt!

20 Oct

Gluteus Maximus MassageEvery now and then clients present complaining of having “ Sciatica”.

This is a highly misused word and often an incorrect self-diagnosis.

Sciatica is a condition where bulging lumber discs in the lower back are compressing the sciatic nerve.

This creates all kinds of discomfort and symptoms such as sharp pain in the back running down the leg and potentially into the foot and can be accompanied by numbness and tingling.

Where is the Piriformis muscle and what goes wrong with it?

The muscle is located in the buttock and the symptoms of its malfunction are often mistaken for sciatica.

Piriformis Syndrome is where the muscle squeezes the sciatic nerve as it passes through the buttock and down the leg.

Symptoms are unlikely to go past the knee. In an estimated 1 to 10% of the population the sciatic nerve actually passes through the muscle!

What’s the significance?

Real sciatica is a condition that should be taken very seriously and ruled out as a cause of symptoms, however tight butt muscles are a much more common and likely event and more easily treated.

What to do about it?

If you have a tight Piriformis that is pressing on your sciatic nerve then you need your butt massaged!

Remedial massage to the Piriformis muscle will loosen it up and take pressure off the nerve underneath.

You will leave your underwear on and your therapist should expertly wrap you in towels so that only a portion of one buttock is exposed at a time.

Don’t be shy now, it’s just another muscle to the massage therapist that’s going to work on it.

The buttocks get tight just like any other muscle in your body, it is after all, the biggest muscle and has to stand you up dozens of times a day!

Book yourself a massage today!

*NOTE: This article is to enhance your knowledge. It is not intended to assess, diagnose or treat and individual’s health status. Please see a health professional if you have concerns over your heath.

 
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Posted in Muscle Pain, Muscle Soreness, Uncategorized

 

It turns out that you can drink too much water!

18 Sep

UnwrappingHyponatremia, endurance sports and the Kokoda Trail

There’s always lots of interesting health and science research popping up every few weeks and one of the last ones to catch my attention is a condition called Hyponatremia.

Definitely sounds scary and so it should.

It’s a serious, life-threatening condition that has come to the attention of the media following several deaths of healthy and fit people on the Kokoda Trail.

When this condition is present during an activity like an ultra-marathon or trekking the Kokoda trail, a person’s sodium level has dropped to a dangerously low level.

By drinking way too much water, the sodium levels in the body become diluted and can bring about hyponatremia and its symptoms of nausea, confusion, loss of appetite, lethargy, headache, reduced level of consciousness, seizures or coma.

If you take part in serious endurance activity of any sort where you are worried about dehydration, consider that there is such a thing as having “too much to drink”.

Do some research and analysis for yourself to determine how much fluid you need to replace during your activity.?

Part of your recovery

Along with proper nutrition following serious endurance activities, it is important to have a few massages mixed in with light workouts and stretching.

Musclefix can provide you with an excellent solution during your recovery.

We can come and give you remedial and sports massage as a premium service in your home in the days or weeks of your recuperation.

Remedial massage will help to speed up recovery and smooth out micro tears and help with DOMS following your adventure.

For more on Hyponatremia: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18333641

 
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Posted in Muscle Pain, Muscle Soreness, Muscles, Uncategorized

 

Important things you must ask your doctor!

28 Aug

medicaldemo

I, as a remedial massage therapist and many other health professional such as physios, osteopaths and chiropractors often see people soon after they’ve visited their doctor.

There’s a problem

Musculoskeletal therapists (massage, physio etc.) often see people who have seen their doctor but still have no idea what is going on with their body!!!!!

I often hear from new clients that they saw their GP and got told to take anti-inflammatory medication and wait 6 weeks and walk around a bit. Do not accept this as all the information you have to go on.

You must probe your doctor!

You need to know what is happening with you and what intervention and treatment is available. Take control and get the most out of your consultation with your doctor.

What you must ask your doctor:

  1. What is your diagnosis?
  2. What does that mean?
  3. Is this a Musculosketal* problem? Is there more I can do than to take medication?
  4. If so, do I need to be referred to a remedial massage therapist, physio, osteo, chiro or podiatrist (feet)?

What will this achieve?

You will leave your doctor’s office knowing what is wrong or where to go for future assessment and treatment. It sounds simple but a lot of people leave their appointment not knowing what the issue is or who to turn to next. This will save you from wasting 6 weeks not getting better when seeing a remedial massage therapist and/or physio and having few sessions of massage, ultrasound and targeted exercises could have had you fixed in that time.

Take home message

Ask your doctor the important questions. You need to know what the issue is or who to see next to find out. Anti-inflammatories and a “see how you go” is not enough information.

*What am I talking about? I’m talking about a problem or symptom/s that have been diagnosed by your doc as originating from either your muscles, joints, tendons or ligaments and other similar tissues.

 
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Posted in Massage, Massage Therapy, Muscle Pain, Muscle Soreness

 

Seated Massage – The Perfect Pick Me Up!

16 Jul

Seated Massage Melbourne | MusclefixSeated massage is a super-convenient way of delivering relaxation and rejuvenation. You can start receiving the massage within 5 seconds, no need to disrobe, no need for oil and you don’t really need to find a particularly private location either.

Seated massage has become the norm in the Australian workplace landscape. It is often referred to as corporate massage. It’s quite common for employers and employees to have a massage day on a regular basis. From every week to every fortnight to once per month, everybody in the workplace can benefit from a good squeeze and massage of the shoulders, neck and arms.

What’s so good about seated massage? Can’t I just have a proper massage?

You can! Normal massage on a table is the ultimate in massage. If you have a private room at your workplace then you can opt for table massage with oils and towels with each massage ranging from 20 minutes up to an hour (or two hours if you’re really keen!). Where seated massage or corporate massage excels over table massage is with large groups of people or where offices are busy and open-plan. With seated massage it is practical to do massages as short as 5-10 minutes whereas with table massage it takes much longer to switch between participants. With seated massage dozens and dozens of people can be massaged in a single visit to the workplace which delivers great savings and value to the business.

So what does a seated massage feel like?

It feels fantastic!! In most cases you’ve already spent a few hours in the office at the desk, on the phone or in meetings so your shoulders will love the attention! Think of it like you are sitting with a warm Spring sun filtering through the trees onto your back with a light breeze flowing by while birds playfully chirp and dance in the air around you. That’s were a seated massage can take you!

OK, so we know seated massage is good in the workplace, but where else can it be handy?

Events, sports events, functions, parties and much more! Seated massage can take place anywhere you and your massage therapist feel is practical.

Have a think about where seated massage could be handy for you. At your work, a function or a party?

 
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Posted in Massage Therapy, Massage Types, Seated Massage

 

How not to turn into a permanent hunchback at work!

25 Jun

The Hunchback of MaryleboneThe office can be a terrible influence on the body. As a remedial massage therapist who has worked in Physiotherapy clinics, Osteopathy clinics and in my own mobile service, I have seen many plasters, concreters, window cleaners who were sporting fairly decent injuries but office work takes the cake for sheer numbers!

Working in an office or at a computer all day may appear less stressful on the body than manual labour, but the office still manages to take it’s toll on the human body. The hours spent in the same position, head peering forward at a screen and shoulders raised makes the perfect recipe for permanent or semi-permanent crap posture!

All of this means excessive curvature of the thoracic spine (between the shoulders), “poking chin syndrome” – not very attractive, potential headaches from the shoulder muscles and occipital muscles (base of skull) and conveys body language that speaks “un-empowered”.

Time to throw in your office job for a career in art, theatrical performance or sport?
That might be a good idea and sounds like fun! But if you and your lappy are going to be tied together for the foreseeable future then get your act together!!!!

What to do?

  • Get a decent computer or screen in your office. Are you leaning over your little laptop at the office for hours? Fix this, plug a big $400 screen in at work. I’m leaning over a laptop right now trying to sit properly when it would be so much easier with a big old-fashioned desktop computer.
  • Move the screen up to eye-level. Grab the yellow pages that’s being used as a doorstop and put it under your screen if you need to.
  • Use a chair with arm rests!!! This will make it much easier to sit up straight and just feels better. Your arms will also rest much nicer and it will be better on your wrists.
  • Move your butt back right up against the back rest. I will make sitting up better.
  • Move around. Get up and do stuff. Don’t stay still for hours on end.
  • Get a massage after work from me of course!

They’re the basics. What you should know is that you don’t have to sit up completely straight. If you’re trying too hard then that’s no good either. Just set yourself up so you’re not a hunchback, take the time to get everything in the right place and stop putting up with sub-optimal arrangements.

Good luck!

 
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Posted in Hunchback, Massage, Muscle Pain, Muscle Soreness

 

Ginger To Reduce Muscle Pain?

25 May

Ginger Reduces Muscle Pain - Massage - MusclefixMassage is a great solution to reducing muscle pain following exercise, but new research has found that ginger can help significantly ease pain too.

Most people know that after vigorous exercise it is advantageous for recovery to consume a good amount of carbs and protein. A well-known way is to have a protein shake right after your workout or exercise activity followed by a few hearty meals during the next 12 hours or so. So keeping in mind the power of protein and good food intake, I was surprised to learn what effect a simple spice like ginger could have.
Read the rest of this entry »

 
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Posted in Uncategorized