How a Massage Can Boost the Effectiveness of Your Workout
There are few things in life more relaxing than a professional massage, but some people don't know how a massage can boost the effectiveness of your workout.
The soothing feeling of getting all your muscles massaged is nothing short of blissful, peeling away all the tension and stress to leave you feeling physically and mentally rejuvenated.
But you don’t need to be visiting a luxury spa to enjoy a massage - many people get one to help boost the effectiveness of their workouts.
In fact, if you regularly workout and generally love fitness, then a massage is worthwhile as it provides a range of benefits that make exercise and recovery more efficient. Anyone looking to maximize their workout results should seriously consider getting regular massages to help take it to the next level.
Here are six ways how a massage can boost the effectiveness of your workouts:
Enhanced Recovery
Properly recovering from exercise is just as important as the workout itself, so by getting a massage you can expect much-improved recovery rates after intense exercise. This is because spa hotels research shows that it massages out the tightness from the muscles that were being worked out, resulting in quicker and more efficient recovery periods.
For example, one study indicated that people receiving a massage immediately following exercise had a higher percentage of regenerating muscle fibers.
Rather than feeling tense and sore the next day, your muscles feel much looser and relaxed. This is especially useful for weight training, as this works the muscles harder than any form of exercise, making recovery even more important for maintaining optimal workouts through the week.
Pain Reduction
Nothing quite limits your ability to exercise than sore muscles, yet it’s all part of the process so most people simply power through the pain.
A massage is a great way to reduce the pain felt after those hard exercises, stretching out any tightness and knots, while also flushing toxin build ups that increase post-workout pains. Research also indicates that a massage can help reduce muscle inflammation, reducing pain and increasing cell recovery rates in affected muscles.
This doesn’t just apply to post-workout pains either. Many people carry nagging muscle injuries when they exercise or are limited in what exercise they can do due to chronic pains, but a massage can help alleviate these sore spots to make your next workout more efficient than ever.
Injury Prevention
Treating pains with a massage is one thing, but many people can outright avoid these problems to begin with by going for a regular massage. This can be highly beneficial for exercising over the long-term, as nothing is more frustrating than not being able to exercise due to an injury.
The reason a massage helps avoid injuries is because the process relaxes the muscles, working out tensions that could develop into a serious injury if left untreated. Regular massages will make muscles easier to stretch, reducing the risk of pulling or treating the muscle during exercise.
For instance, if you get a massage before heading to the gym then your muscles have improved blood flow. This makes pre-workout stretches much easier and more fluid, so your muscles are better prepared for the exercise and less likely to become injured.
Better Flexibility
As mentioned, a massage helps to improve blood flow to make muscles much easier to stretch and avoid injuries, but this also has a few more positive effects for exercising. The first is that the muscles are naturally more flexible after massages, so regular massage therapy will make you more flexible, which only helps improve the efficiency of your workouts.
Many people are shocked at how stiff and tense their muscles are when they start exercising, so a massage can be the perfect way to improve flexibility for easier exercising. You’ll be touching your toes in no time!
Tension Relief
Muscles become tense after exercise, so a massage provides the perfect tension relief by relaxing effected muscles. The body becomes more relaxed as a result, allowing for better workouts, especially when doing weight training.
The tension relief isn’t just physical - mental tension is also reduced with a nice massage. Massages are very therapeutic experiences, allowing the individual to lie down and relax for a while, which is great for the mind, which can only be a good thing for future workouts.
Improved Mental Wellbeing
Much like exercise offers relief from the stresses of life, so too does a massage, and it may even make your exercise all the better for it. A massage causes a release of feel good endorphins that immediately improves your mood, so you’ll be feeling much better for your next workout session instead of dreading it.
Another way improved mental wellbeing from a massage can boost the effectiveness of your workouts is reducing cortisol. Known as the stress hormone, cortisol increases stress which can have a knock-on effect on your workouts, so by getting a massage you can reduce coritisol levels and watch the stress fall away.
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