Should You Have A Massage?

By ChulucanasGym

George  has finished his training routine for today. He had legs, and squads concentrated a big part of his time. While he warms down a Little before taking a shower, he notices there is some corner  in the back part of his waist, the lower back to be more specific. And this is not the first time ever, apparently.

He comments it to his trainer, who does a quick exam and notices the muscle is evidently resented. “You should check it up with a specialist, although you should treat the pain with a masseur,”  he advices. While George walks on the gym’s showers, his trainer reviews other similar cases. It seems the waist pains  were a common illness among his pupils. Maybe, he is not so far away the truth.

Many trainers we have talked to, coincide in this type of injury – the lower back’s. And in some cases, they add knees’, independently if it’s about a power or resistance training or the mixed ones as functional training. The causes could be a bad pose, a wrong movement, or the excessive weight in power trainings. It could be the George’s case, maybe. But what about the advice of having a massage?

JonatanChero is a Piura, Peru-based masseur and has a clear answer about: “yes, depending on the case.”  When somebody works out, especially heavy, trends to break the muscular fibers at mycroscopic scale. In compensation, the body segregates lactic acid and repairs the mycro-injuries. And if proteins were consumed, those go to be part of the new tissue. That is in brief the principle of muscular reparation and the building of new muscular fibers.

But, how does a massage help? It can be very effective to calm the effects of the intense exercise because it has the ability of decreasing the muscular spasms, relieving the muscular pain, and accelerating the recuperation process. “It removes the accumulating liquids to cause inflamation, helps the blood circulation, and shifts the reparation of muscular fiber,” Chero adds, who warns it doesn’t ever work in all the cases.

“We have to see the injury degree that the patient has,” he clarifies. “When it is much severe, it is not recommendable.” That means, when there are too much broken fibers. “That can be verifiable by the swelling level, and over all by the pain and the movement ability the patient has.”

Chero also discards the prejudge that a massage can increase the muscular mass.  It is only a very punctual therapy that, instead, reduces the muscular fatigue, what means a minor recuperation time between training routines, that favors a better performance during them.

When  To Have A Massage?

For bodybuilders and athletes in general, the massage is a very usual activity as the training routine, the feeding, or the rest time, and there are two moments its application must be considered: just finished the training session, in a preventive way, and when there is an evident injury, in a therapeutic way.

In the first case, do your training routine as you accostum. Once finished, warm down about 5 to 10 minutes, go to take a refreshing and relaxing shower, and just when you get dry, put yourself under the masseur’s hands. Usually, a session lasts from 15 to 20 minutes, although it is relative according to your needs. In the preventive procedure, the key is letting not to spend the time but doing one activity after another.

The therapeutic procedure does have another timing. “It’s never good to have massage just the injury is evidenced,” Jonatan Chero warns. “The best is letting to spend some hours; for example, if you injure at night, attend the next morning; if it happens in the morning, go in the afternoon; if in the afternoon, have the massage at night.” In this specific case, it’s better a specialist exams you before the massage, as a traumatologist or similar, and proceed only if he prescribes it to you.

Finally, Jonatan Chero shares us some key tips regarding the massage sessions, those can be useful for you.

Before the massage:

• Preferently schedule your date when you are completely free, maybe at the end of your day, or don’t accumulate many activities one after another for the next couple of hours.
• Think deeply about it will be good for you.
• Attend after take a meticulous bath.
• Turn off your cellphone or turn it silent. Avoid the technology to distract you.

During the massage:

• Relax, breathe deeply. Get disconnected from your problems.
• Trust in the therapist, only provided his experience is certified.
• Let get involved by the sensations that the experience produces in you. It’s part of the therapy.

After the massage:

• Have a time to rest deeply.
• Avoid the episode that produces you stress or injury.

Don’t forget to share your experience giving or having a massage at chulucanasgym@gmail.com, or on our Twitter account, or leaving a message just right below.

Jorge Ramírez has been the model of this post. Photos distributed by FACTORTIERRA.NET