Sports Massage has a reputation as a therapy that isn’t for everyone – the name alone sees to that. But take the “Sports” aspect out and think of it as “Soft tissue therapy”, a form of manual therapy that can help anyone, regardless of your occupation or activity level.
Here at Kent Sport, we treat people from all walks of life, from all occupations, of all ages, across every scale of physical activity – even those who answer “nothing!” to that last part!
We treat athletes and weightlifters, footballers and lacrosse players, but one of our most frequent patients is the office employee.
Think for a moment how much you actually sit every day. You get up in the morning, and after getting dressed will probably sit at the table and eat breakfast or have a much-needed strong coffee (I know I do). Then you get in the car or on the bus, and sit down for the commute to work. Then you get to work and sit at your desk for most of the day, and after that, repeat the morning’s journey home. After that you’ll probably sit and eat dinner, then maybe sit on the sofa and watch TV, before you go to bed. If we’re up for around 16 hours a day, that’s a lot of sitting!
If you have a job that involves sitting down for most of the day, you are at a much greater risk of developing tight hamstrings, lengthened quads, rounded shoulders, lower back pain, perhaps even tension headaches, frozen shoulder, the list could go on! You might think “but I don’t feel any of these things”, but you might be thinking “my neck aches a bit” or “my back feels really tight”. For some people, they begin to find that a simple daily task gets more difficult, like they can’t bend down to tie their shoelaces, or they can’t reach up into a cupboard to get something out of it.
The same applies if you’re on your feet all day – perhaps you work in a customer-facing role such as a retail assistant, or work as a trades person – it takes its toll on our bodies. We’re encouraged to be active, but we all know what tired feet and an aching back feels like.
Sports Massage can help either before or after these problems occur. We can ease the tension in tight or painful muscles, and show you how to stretch and build more movement into your daily routine to speed up your rehabilitation and avoid a recurrence. We treat you as an individual with specific needs, not as just another number that we apply generic treatment to. The idea of sports massage is that after a course of treatment, you won’t come back – not because you don’t want to, but because you don’t need to!
We hope you’ll feel welcome at the clinic, and encourage anyone who has any of the problems I’ve outlined above to get in touch. I always ask the same question:
Who do you know that we could help?
As a long-distance runner, our Sports Massage Therapist Mark Allen understands people’s requirements all too well and has benefited from treatment since his early teens. He is now qualified to level 4 in sports massage therapy and here he shares why everyone can benefit from the service here at the University of Kent Canterbury campus.
To find out more about Kent Sport Physiotherapy Clinic visit www.kent.ac.uk/sports/physio and to make an appointment speak to a member of staff at the Sports Centre reception or call us on 01227 824375 or email physio@kent.ac.uk.