5 Ways Massage Can Benefit Crossfitters
For blasting calories, it’s hard to beat CrossFit. The high-intensity cardio and strength training burns calories faster than other workouts, and fans love the variety of the workouts and the results.
But a vigorous CrossFit workout can be hard on your body, especially at first. It’s important to take care of yourself between workouts to prevent injury and exhaustion. Massage therapy from Coastal Massage and Bodywork can be a big help in rejuvenating your body between CrossFit workouts. Here’s how it works:
1. Massage Can Help Repair Damaged Muscles
Rigorous exercise of all types, including CrossFit, causes tiny tears in muscle fibers. That makes your muscles feel sore, but it also helps build muscle as you rest and heal.
Massage helps reduce soreness and heal muscles faster. How? Massage stimulates your body’s mitochondria, which help repair the muscle tears. And it reduces the production of cytokines which cause inflammation. This helps repair damaged muscles by increasing a fresh blood and oxygen supply and removing toxins that have built up in the tissue.
2. Massage Therapy Gets Blood Flowing
CrossFit is great for cardiovascular conditioning and joint mobility. Getting a massage between your CrossFit workouts helps to lengthen muscles and improve blood flow. Getting this extra oxygen into your body really improves recovery time and range of motion.
3. Regular Massage Helps Prevent Injury
After a vigorous workout like CrossFit, lactic acid can build up in your muscles, causing soreness. If you don’t keep the lactic acid moving, it will slow your body’s recovery time.
A knowledgeable massage therapist knows how to help your body repair itself by working the lactic acid out of your muscles. That means your recovery time after CrossFit is faster, and there’s less chance of injury from your workout.
4. Reduce Stress with Massage
Everyone knows how beneficial massage is for stress reduction. If you’re feeling sore, it can cause stress and anxiety. A good massage will get you back on the path to positive thinking about your CrossFit workout.
5. Reduce Inflammation the Natural Way
When your muscles ache after a CrossFit workout, it’s tempting to pop a pain reliever such as aspirin or ibuprofen. But these drugs don’t reduce inflammation in the same way massage does. Massage therapy can provide safe, long-lasting reduction of inflammation in the muscles, bones, joints, nerves, and tendons.
Consider scheduling regular massage therapy sessions to ease soreness and fatigue from your CrossFit workout. When you know you’re going to have an especially vigorous workout, request a massage appointment on a rest day. Or set up a massage session if you have a Crossfit competition coming up.
See Related:3 Reasons to Get a Sports Massage in Wilmington NC
Coastal Massage and Bodyworks knows what a great workout CrossFit is, and our licensed massage therapists love to help make it even better by easing soreness and helping repair your muscles with massage. Each of our massage sessions is customized to address your unique needs. Call us today at (910) 240-2987 to schedule a session, or book a massage online. We look forward to helping make your CrossFit program even better!
