My Sports Massage Therapist Experience & Action Plan

There is, and has been, tension in the world of strength and conditioning and physical therapy and chiropractic fields as to the benefits, application and need for manual therapy and things like foam rollers. I have personally been all over the spectrum and look to people all over the spectrum as well. Frankly, my goal is always to just call something what it is. To make sure that we’re not selling something or using verbiage that is misleading to consumers.

We must begin this episode with a slue of disclaimers - I am not a massage therapist, I am strength coach, and I am not prescribing you do something. You need to consult with your doctor or health professional on your own to determine treatment or if that is even needed.

Today I am merely sharing my own sports massage experience.

That is IT. Period. Nothing else.

You’re probably, to my knowledge, not rolling out an adhesion or changing the actual tone of your muscles via a massage or foam roller. Okay. Fascia is like super fucking strong fibers that would take an astronomical amount of pressure to actually alter in any way. That’s why I have seen physical therapists on the “no need to massage or foam roll” spectrum make statements like “if I could change your muscle, I’d leave a dent in your leg.” Which I fully understand. BUT also, it’s grey. So is there NO benefit to massage? Or any manual therapy?

Studies that I have seen do not support increased recovery, lack of muscle damage post workout, or long term increased range of motion. Some of the claims we often hear with massage and foam rolling or other types of manual therapy. Don’t quote me on this, but I do believe there is support in increased circulation and causing a parasympathetic response. Especially with massage, these things would be beneficial.

So, I don’t know that the debate will ever end. We need far more research applied to strength, performance and muscle growth to make any bold claims I believe. You’re not lengthening your muscles with a foam roller. We know that. Okay? So use it for it is, turning up the volume of pain, causing temporary relief when said pain and pressure subsides. It’s quite possibly more in the mind than anything. If you’re going to follow that up with some mobility work, good on you.

That very smoothly leads us into why I sought out a sports massage therapist about a month ago now.

Whether anecdotal or not, I am fan of massage. Always have been. Largely because two distinct periods in my life when I physically felt my best were when I was regularly getting massages.

Those two seasons were after an extreme car accident that ended in 9 months of PT and 2-3 times per week with massage therapy. And the other, a very different situation - we were living in Chiang Mai, Thailand and we would both get massages every 3 days or so. They are like 10-15 per session there. They’re also the same every time. So no specificity but just a fantastic mid day full body massage 2-3 times per week. SIGN ME UP.

It should be noted that Nate and I don’t have health insurance. Coming off 2021 health was something that kept recurring in my personal journaling, as well as business weekly, monthly and quarterly reflections. Health for myself and my family. Obviously not having health insurance makes things more stressful. Where you’d normally have an ache or pain and just make an appointment, without insurance you lack that reassurance that so often comes from the doc, right? Normally it’s nothing, you’re fine. When I looked at the issues I was having with my body from a physical sense, I landed on massage as the first step.