Massage for runners: 3 options for any wallet

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Every runner is familiar with the unpleasant sensations in the legs that occur several hours after an intense workout. This is soreness. It is not too dangerous, but it can make running unbearable. To avoid performance degradation and just get your workout back on track, it's worth incorporating massage into your running plan.

From a theoretical point of view, these sensations are mainly due to the accumulation of lactic acid in the muscles. Other metabolic products also contribute to this unpleasant effect of quality training.

From a practice standpoint, pain can be worse for many reasons:

insufficient warm-up,
poorly fitted sneakers
unbalanced running program,
individual features of the structure of the foot and spine, and so on.

Ideally, of course, you need to identify and eliminate the cause so that running does not harm your health. But this is not always possible to do: someone pulls with the purchase of new sneakers, another is too eager to achieve new running goals, and the third cannot be forced to do a full warm-up and cool down. As a result, with each run, the legs become clogged more and more, running becomes more and more difficult, less pleasant and more traumatic.

Massage can help. Moreover, this is a completely proven fact. In Italy, about 220 ultramarathon runners (men and women), 95% of whom complained of leg pain. Everyone felt better after the massage.

After the massage, 43 runners felt that their soreness decreased, 176 athletes noted significant improvements in well-being, one person did not notice any effect, but no one got worse!

And although scientists have promised to continue research, while it is possible to rely on a completely obvious assumption: massage improves blood circulation, which means that metabolic products are quickly excreted from the body, and nutrients are quickly supplied to the muscles.

Thanks to the quick recovery, the muscles will be more flexible and less painful. In addition, it is not always possible to relax after training, and without this, recovery is difficult.

With massage, you can not only bring back the pleasure of running, but also increase your productivity. If you are serious about running, then massage should be one of the must-have items of your running plan. It remains only to decide on the finances that you are willing to spend on it.

Option 1, the most expensive: massage from a specialist

This is the best variant. However, a massage course in a salon or fitness center can cost tens of thousands of rubles. And after all, one course will not do: it is better to do massage regularly. At the same time, this price does not give any guarantee that the massage will be really sports.

How you can save:masseurs who take at home charge much less. At the same time, many have a massage table, medical education, and vast experience. Try to find such a specialist, and you will save not one thousand, but at the same time time.

Option 2, the most romantic: ask a loved one

Any massage therapist will tell you that you cannot do a massage if you are a non-professional. But do you understand that he is just protecting his piece of bread? In fact, if your husband or wife is willing to massage you, they can use information available on the Internet or sign up for massage courses.

The advantages of this option are multifaceted: you will save family money, be able to massage at any time at home, and at the same time become closer to your loved one.

In addition, if you do not have a mutation of nerve endings, like Deadpool's enemy, then it is not so difficult not to harm yourself with an unprofessional massage: just be attentive to your own feelings.

Option 3, not for the lazy: self-massage

This option is certainly not as inspiring. But it's still better than no massage. The most difficult thing here is to overcome your own laziness and not look for excuses like "there will be no use for this", "I'll get a salary and go to the salon" and "I didn't really want to."

Available options:

Self-massage with the help of hands: stroking, pressing, rubbing and tapping.
Self-massage with massage balls and rollers (or a tennis ball and bottle).
The use of special massagers.

Video 1. Ball massage

Video 2. Massage with hands

Video 3. Foot massage

Personally, I like Lyapko's massagers and this is a rather powerful bandura.

How much and when

It's actually hard to find a runner familiar with the excess of massage. It is unlikely that you will be able to allocate too much time and money for this.

Ideally, massage should be done about a few hours after each hard workout. But even if you do massage from time to time, it will still have a positive effect on the condition of the muscles.

If you are going to participate in the race, then it is worth having a massage 3-5 days before the event.

In any case, it should be borne in mind that the intensity and depth of the massage, on the one hand, is determined by the load on the muscles during running, and on the other, it determines the break between the massage and the next run.