How A Sports Massage Therapist Can Help Weightlifters Overcome Plateaus

If you are reaping marginal results from your workouts after experiencing a surge in gains, you may need to book an appointment with a sports massage therapist.

Advanced weightlifters often dread the plateau where no matter how much or how often they lift, gains trickle in slowly. Sometimes, all you have to do is tweak your training and/or your diet. Sometimes, the reason for marginal gains is lack of rest and recovery.

If you have tweaked your diet and training, it is worthwhile to look at your recovery phase. But how exactly can sports massage help you in your strength training?

One of the areas where a massage therapist can help you is flexibility. If you want to elevate your performance, you need to improve your flexibility. Through regular massage, flexibility can be improved, specifically through the stretching of muscle fibres. Your therapist can also relieve muscle tensions that lead to scar tissues and adhesions. Therapists can also help remedy muscle tightness and maintain balance between opposing muscle groups like the chest and the back.

Therapists can also improve your circulation. During heavy training, your muscles suffer micro tears. In order to repair these small tears, nutrient-rich blood should optimally flow to these areas. Through bodywork, blood circulation and even lymphatic drain is improved. This translates to the optimal delivery of nutrients to muscle tissue and elimination of waste.

Sometimes, the reason why you have stopped making significant progress in your training is because you do not push yourself further. The reason? You are afraid to aggravate the pain that you are experiencing. Whether you are suffering from acute or chronic pain, your therapist can help minimize (if not eliminate)this, allowing you to push past your fear.

Sleep is crucial for optimal recovery. And if you have experienced getting a massage, one of the side effects that you'll immediately notice is how deep your sleep has become. Regular massage can help you get deep sleep allowing you to maximise recovery and muscle growth.

Mentally, one of the benefits of getting regular massage include mental relaxation. Sometimes, lifters have a difficult time transitioning from a competitive state of mind into a relaxed one. By getting regular massage, you can put yourself in a more relaxed state that can help in your recovery and even in your life outside of the gym.

Overcoming plateaus entail a critical approach toward your training, diet and recovery. Take a good look at each and take the appropriate corrective steps.