Whether you’re an athlete or a regular sports enthusiast, you must know how to relax your tense muscles. Dr. S Ayyadurai, chief physiotherapist, Fortis Malar Hospital shares a list of massages best suited for an athletic body.

After a hectic schedule or an intense session at the gym or a straining game, you need to relax your muscles, whether you’re a normal person or a professional athlete. Massages gives the body the required relaxation by releasing the stress and tension in the muscles. Massages are the best way to increase the efficiency and efficacy of an athlete, and the same stands true for non-athletes also. A good massage can help you train your muscles, and also help in the release of happy hormones, endorphins, in the body.

So here are four types of massages as suggested by Dr. S Ayyadurai, chief physiotherapist, Fortis Malar Hospital, which will make your muscles stronger and enhance your performance.

Sports Massage

Best for: Preventing and treating injury

Sports massages are mostly done before or post the sports activity. An athlete can get a sports massage done the day or the day before the sports event as it prepares the body to take up the pressure of the sports activity.

Swedish Massage

Best for: Relaxation, stress relief, first massage

Swedish massage helps in warming up the muscle tissue in order to release toxins, tension and soreness from the body. It can be done using lighter or deeper pressure; the goal of Swedish massage is to give the body complete relaxation. It helps in increasing the blood circulation in the body in addition with increasing the level of oxygen in the blood.

Trigger Point Therapy

Trigger point therapy targets muscle knots and specific muscle tissues.

The massage therapist will find the knots in the muscles and work on it using deep pressures. This kind of massage is best for overcoming injuries and sprains, especially for relieving pain and stress from the calf muscles.

Deep Tissue Massage

This is one of the most common types of massages applied on athletes. These are quite intense massages, as they are more focused. Unlike trigger point therapy, deep tissue massages focus on new problem areas and work on entire muscle.

Massage is needed once in a while just to give your mind and body some relaxation in order to be focused on their sports performance. However, they must consult their therapist to find out the most suitable massage type.