Getting Started

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Boris Prilutsky on May 25, 2011 at 11:50am

DearDee.

In my opinion first of all you have to have real definition about what sports massage is.

Below is short information from my article. Hope it will help to have this understanding.. You  also will have to decide if you would have preference to work with professional  athletes,or  fitness enthusiasts. I would recommend to start with fitness enthusiasts, to get experiences. 20 years of my career I spend working with Olympian teams as well with professional teams and can tell you this is a very hard labor both physically and emotionally. You have to be prepared.

Good luck and best wishes.

Boris Prilutsky

 

 

Post-Event Sport Massage

By Boris Prilutsky,


For some reason, massage therapists that specialize in treatments of sport related injuries are calling this method ⌠sport massage. In my opinion, if someone sprains/strains the lower back, upper back, shoulder, knee, etc., by playing sport or working at home, or at the workplace, the pathology that will be developed due to kind of injury disturbing orthopedic status. Utilization of massage in cases of back and limb disorders we call orthopedic massage. There is no doubt that there is huge room for orthopedic massage available in sport rehabilitative medicine. It is proven that orthopedic massage therapy is a very effective tool in treating sport-related, industrial injuries, as well as helping people experience less pain in cases of degenerative diseases of the support and movement systems such as osteoarthritis, degenerative disc disease and other types of spondylosis. Really sport massage that is utilized only in industry of sport is a pre-event sport massage and post-event rehabilitative sport massage. These two types of massage therapy are very important efforts in order to improve the athletes performances, to prevent to a maximum extent, sport related injuries, as well as to eliminate side effects of exercise stress/overtraining. 20 years ago, training in sport massage was limited to massage therapists who worked with professional teams, Olympian teams, etc. Nowadays, sport massage has value not only for professional athletes, but also for the modern fitness enthusiast. If you will pay attention to the behavior of today's gym members, you will see people who are working out as if they are preparing themselves for competition. It is obvious that most of them are pushing themselves to the limit. In most cases, people don't or forget to ask themselves, ⌠Why am I in the gym? If you will ask them this question, no doubt their answer will be ⌠to keep (themselves) in shape and to contribute to (their) health. But the manner of working out like a professional athlete in the long run causes more harm than good. What a lot of people do not realize is that professional sport-like training is not contributing to health. Professional sports actually is a tough rough show business and nothing else. I personally don't believe that we are capable of changing the minds of gym enthusiasts that vigorous exercise (which most gym enthusiasts are engaging in) is not a good idea. But there is no doubt that post-event rehabilitative sport massage can be of tremendous help to the health of these gym enthusiasts. The post-event rehabilitative sport massage that I am practicing initially developed and proposed by professor Alexander Dembo, MD, PhD, former Leningrad, now Peterburg School of Medicine in 1964. Since then it clinically proven as a working treatment methods.

Permalink Reply by Dee Kupsky on May 25, 2011 at 11:58am

Thank You Boris!

Boris Prilutsky said:

DearDee.

In my opinion first of all you have to have real definition about what sports massage is.

Below is short information from my article. Hope it will help to have this understanding.. You  also will have to decide if you would have preference to work with professional  athletes,or  fitness enthusiasts. I would recommend to start with fitness enthusiasts, to get experiences. 20 years of my career I spend working with Olympian teams as well with professional teams and can tell you this is a very hard labor both physically and emotionally. You have to be prepared.

Good luck and best wishes.

Boris Prilutsky

 

 

Post-Event Sport Massage

By Boris Prilutsky,


For some reason, massage therapists that specialize in treatments of sport related injuries are calling this method ⌠sport massage. In my opinion, if someone sprains/strains the lower back, upper back, shoulder, knee, etc., by playing sport or working at home, or at the workplace, the pathology that will be developed due to kind of injury disturbing orthopedic status. Utilization of massage in cases of back and limb disorders we call orthopedic massage. There is no doubt that there is huge room for orthopedic massage available in sport rehabilitative medicine. It is proven that orthopedic massage therapy is a very effective tool in treating sport-related, industrial injuries, as well as helping people experience less pain in cases of degenerative diseases of the support and movement systems such as osteoarthritis, degenerative disc disease and other types of spondylosis. Really sport massage that is utilized only in industry of sport is a pre-event sport massage and post-event rehabilitative sport massage. These two types of massage therapy are very important efforts in order to improve the athletes performances, to prevent to a maximum extent, sport related injuries, as well as to eliminate side effects of exercise stress/overtraining. 20 years ago, training in sport massage was limited to massage therapists who worked with professional teams, Olympian teams, etc. Nowadays, sport massage has value not only for professional athletes, but also for the modern fitness enthusiast. If you will pay attention to the behavior of today's gym members, you will see people who are working out as if they are preparing themselves for competition. It is obvious that most of them are pushing themselves to the limit. In most cases, people don't or forget to ask themselves, ⌠Why am I in the gym? If you will ask them this question, no doubt their answer will be ⌠to keep (themselves) in shape and to contribute to (their) health. But the manner of working out like a professional athlete in the long run causes more harm than good. What a lot of people do not realize is that professional sport-like training is not contributing to health. Professional sports actually is a tough rough show business and nothing else. I personally don't believe that we are capable of changing the minds of gym enthusiasts that vigorous exercise (which most gym enthusiasts are engaging in) is not a good idea. But there is no doubt that post-event rehabilitative sport massage can be of tremendous help to the health of these gym enthusiasts. The post-event rehabilitative sport massage that I am practicing initially developed and proposed by professor Alexander Dembo, MD, PhD, former Leningrad, now Peterburg School of Medicine in 1964. Since then it clinically proven as a working treatment methods.

Permalink Reply by Earl Wenk on May 27, 2011 at 2:01pm

Hi Dee,

 

As Boris mentioned, a first step is to ask yourself what types of athletes would you like to target?  This includes both the level of competition as well as the sports themselves.  There is a different approach based on the type of sport (individual vs team) and level of competition (high school, college, pro).

Also, check this discussion thread in our group - it is a compilation of some marketing advice:  http://www.massageprofessionals.com/group/sportsmassage/forum/topic...

Welcome to the group!

Earl

 

 

Permalink Reply by Noel Norwick on May 28, 2011 at 1:30pm

Hi Earl:  Are you saying that there are different approaches to performing sports massage or to marketing sports massage depending on what sport and level of competitor one is targeting?

Permalink Reply by Earl Wenk on May 28, 2011 at 7:52pm

Hi Noel,

 

Sorry for the confusion.  I was talking about marketing sports massage - responding to the "getting the foot in the door or read my resume" comment in the initial question.

 

Earl

Permalink Reply by Noel Norwick on May 28, 2011 at 10:39pm

Hi Earl:  Appreciate the clarification.