Deep Tissue VS Sports Massage
What's the difference and which one should I book?
Recently, I started offering a new service at Rest Day Massage Therapy.
You can now book an Integrative Sports Massage! Exciting stuff, but I’m assuming most people don’t really know what that is.
I would say about 95% of what I do is deep tissue massage, so I’ve haven't really dove into explaining the differences in modalities of massages. (Plus there are 100’s of them, so I wouldn’t even know where to start).
There are lots of similarities and differences between deep tissue and sports massage. I’m going to give you a run down of what each style is, and who should book what style.
Deep Tissue Massage
My blog post, Defining Deep Tissue, does a great job of diving into what a deep tissue massage is, but here are the cliff notes.
Deep tissue massage is any massage that targets muscles and fascia that lay beneath your superficial layers. It's a very generalized term, so it gives the massage therapist freedom on how to achieve that goal for their client.
Massage strokes tend to be slower and deeper, so this massage will help put you in a state of relaxation and activates your parasympathetic nervous system. When you are in a parasympathetic state, your body is able to heal. Because of this, deep tissue is great for overall recovery.
Deep tissue works great for generalized areas of pain (ie low back pain, tight neck/shoulders, ect), but some site specific work can be achieved during the massage as well.
Who should book a deep tissue?
Overly stressed individuals
Athletes who feel worn out
Active individuals who want to prevent injuries and remain healthy
Integrative Sports Massage
Sports massage addresses common injuries and dysfunctions associated with sports or activities. This might be a baseball player whose shoulder hurts when throwing, or a runner with tight calves, or even a lumberjack with loss of grip strength!
Sports massage is massage that also incorporates stretching.
INTEGRATIVE SPORTS MASSAGE is a term I decided to use. I’m not sure it's actually a real thing (yet?), but here is how I define it:
Integrative sports massage is site specific deep tissue work PLUS passive and active stretching PLUS Myofascial Release (ie cupping, RockBlades, compression flossing) PLUS RockTape application.
For a general idea of what a session would look like, let's go back to the baseball player example. I would do some massage on their arm, take them through some active and passive stretching, maybe do some cupping or muscle scraping on the area, and finish with RockTape to reinforce the work done in the session.
Sports massage tends to be more goals oriented. The athlete will come in with a problem we want to address. We not only want relief, but we hopefully find out what is causing the issue. I tend to ask more questions and require more feedback. Because of this, sports massages are usually less relaxing and feel a bit more clinical.
Interacting with the athlete during the session has benefits. The more we can involve the athlete in the session, the more we are working their nervous system. Not only are we working the muscle tissue, we are training the brain on what the new normal should be.
Typically, you are fully clothed during a sports massage session (mine at least). We want the athlete to have the freedom to move around and stretch without being exposed, so we want to stay as covered as we can to do the work that needs to be done. That being said, sports massage is great for student athletes and people who might feel too vulnerable getting a traditional massage!
Who should book an integrative sports massage?
Individuals with specific injuries
Student athletes
People who are intimidated by traditional massages