Sports Massage / Soft Tissue Therapist & Personal Trainer
Woodbridge, Suffolk Based
What is Soft Tissue Therapy?
Soft Tissue Therapy (STT) is much more than just a massage. It is a clinical approach to the management, manipulation, and rehabilitation of the body’s soft tissues—including your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and fascia.
Whether you are an elite athlete, a weekend runner, or recovering from an injury, STT is designed to help your body move better and stay pain-free.
The Key Benefits of STT
1. Proactive Injury Prevention
We don’t just wait for something to break. STT involves assessing your movement patterns to identify imbalances or “niggles” before they develop into serious injuries. It’s an “MOT” for your body.
2. Injury Rehabilitation
If you are already dealing with an injury, STT helps remodel the soft tissue. We use specific techniques to reduce scar tissue and restore strength and mobility, helping you return to sport or daily life safely.
3. Managing Training Load
As you increase your training intensity or mileage, your muscles can become fatigued and shortened. STT helps manage this tension, allowing you to train harder and longer without the risk of burnout.
4. Joint and Ligament Support
By releasing the tight muscles that pull on your joints (like the knees, hips, and spine), STT reduces the pressure and wear-and-tear on your skeletal system, leading to smoother, pain-free movement.
5. Performance Optimization
When your soft tissues are healthy and flexible, they fire more efficiently. This means better power output, improved running economy, and overall better performance in your sessions.
Soft Tissue Therapy vs. Deep Tissue Massage
While Deep Tissue Massage focuses on releasing deep-seated knots and tension for relief, Soft Tissue Therapy is a broader, more clinical approach. It combines massage with assessment and rehabilitation techniques to improve your body’s long-term function.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens when I book my first appointment?
- What difficulties you might be experiencing (e.g. an injury, when it occurred, muscle tension, etc.)
- Whether you have a space available where a portable treatment couch can be set up
- To wear shorts and a close fitting t-shirt (and if a female, wear a back-closing bra). This will allow me to do your postural assessment more easily. During treatment, you may be required to remove outer clothing, but you will always be covered with towels for comfort. Only areas being worked upon will be exposed for massage.
- Whether you would like someone to accompany you (please note that if the client is under the age of 18, a parent or adult guardian must be present during the appointment)
What will happen at my inital assessment?
- You maybe be asked to complete a simple medical questionnaire.
- We will discuss what physical issues you are having and any you have had in the past.
- I will create a treatment plan to help you get back on track. This may include some exercises for you to do on your own.
- This should take the allowed time. Further appointments maybe required.
- Please note that there may not be time to perform much massage during this initial assessment, so you may wish to book a longer appointment.
- You are always allowed to have someone present during your treatment should you wish (friend, partner, etc.). Anyone under the age of 18 must have a parent or adult guardian present during treatment..
How often should I have a massage?
This really depends on you. I have some clients who prefer to weekly sessions, as they have difficulty doing enough stretching or other work on their own, or they have a lot of stress and/or are training very hard. Other clients I may see only once or twice a year, as that’s only how often their neck, shoulder, leg, etc bothers them. With regard to massage for sports performance, when training for an event you may need to come weekly or fortnightly, but then when not training as hard, only once a month. As discussed above, it depends largely on your own individual situation, and it’s not set in stone: we can always increase or decrease frequency based on your needs at the time.
What happens if I am unwell before my treament?
Please ring me on 07765674042 as soon as possible to let me know so that we can reschedule. It is never a good idea to have a massage while you are under the weather as it can spread infection and sometimes make you feel even worse.
How many treatments will I need?
This will all depend upon:
- The extent of your injury or issue.
- Your overall physical health.
- You and how long you wish to continue treatment
What Might I experience after my treatment?
- You may feel a bit achy afterwards due to some of the techniques used, but you should never be in pain.
- You may even sleep better (or worse) than usual for the first night after treatment.
- Should you experience anything you are unsure about, please contact me immediately.
Should Sports Massage be included in my excercise routine?
Yes!
Repetitive movements associated with exercise means that your muscle fibres will slowly become shortened. You are therefore more prone to injury because the muscle fibres will be compressed and have less supply of blood. Less blood means less pliable and so you will be more prone to pulls, strains and even tears in the muscle or connective tissue. Stretching will help lengthen the muscles after exercise, but sports massage will do that and a great deal more.
Sports massage increases the blood flow to the area which will help these compressed muscle fibres relax. There are many deep stretching techniques within sports massage treatment which help stretch the muscle fibres and restore them to their original length.
Sport massage improves the whole circulatory system, which means that the muscles will not only be supplied with more blood, but with more oxygen and more nutrients too and have less waste products. This means fewer cramps, less lactic acid and more endurance allowing you to run longer (nutrients) and faster (oxygen). By increasing the circulation to the muscles themselves you will also be benefiting other parts of your body such as more oxygen and nutrients to other cells and tissues.
Sports massage treatments are cumulative. The more you have the more benefit you will gain. If you have one treatment after a race or competition, this will help recovery, but as it’s cumulative, you will gain more benefit if sports massage is incorporated into your whole routine.
For it to work best decide how often you can afford to get treatment. Then schedule it into your programme, i.e. once a month, once a fortnight, once every 8 weeks. Once you’ve completed a treatment book your next one before you leave the clinic so that it doesn’t get forgotten!
If you have any other questions please feel free to ask
If you have any other questions please feel free to call 07765674042,
email: info@musclesmatter.co.uk
or contact me via the facebook page.
I will always do my best to get back to you as soon as I can
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