Some notes on sports massage

These notes were posted to the highland-dance mailing list.

NB All information in here should be treated as a friend's suggestion - ie while we believe the information to be mainly correct, you should apply common sense about following it. If it hurts, if it looks wrong for you, don't do it*.

[Posted by Bobbie Suttie]
KC Workshop === What I remember is:
To warm up you pump the leg from the thigh to the ankle using both hands - this pushes the blood into the leg. You then rub the leg briskly with both hands up & down the whole leg. This warms up the muscle. You then knead the leg, using the fingers in circular motion at the trouble spots - such as around the knee, up the front of the shin where you get shin splints, at the ankle, around the joints.
To cool down you pump the blood from ankle up using both hands. This releases the toxins while pushing the blood towards the heart so it can be oxygenated. You do not rub the leg as you want it to cool down instead of warm up. You then knead with both hands - give equal attention to both sides of the leg, hips, etc.
If you have a painful area you need to massage the oposite side as the opposing muscle tensing up is causing pain from over stretching the muscle which is hurting.
If you have swelling in an ankle or any other site ice it down - all the way around the ankle, not just where it hurts. Use ice on 20 minutes, off 20 minutes, on 20 minutes. Ice for first 2 days. Heat shouldn't be used as it brings more blood into the site, increasing swelling. DO NOT use sports creams for the same reason. Heat may be used after two days of icing.
[Posted by Mary-Beth Miller-Klein]
For in between activities, you pump the blood from ankle up using both hands then rub the leg briskly with both hands up & down the whole leg.
For those not there. this rubbing action is similar to what the Karate teacher did on "Karate Kid". Hands straight and moving in a back and forth movement as fast as possible.
<Also - Kimmy remembers the Hokey Pokey>
To show you what a great sense of humor this guy had... he used me to demonstrate a technique. He was very serious. Had put my leg forward, leg back, then shake it all around, then turn around to face him again. Then he told everyone I just did the Hokey Pokey. Yep.. I fell for it. Hook, line, and sinker!
[Posted by Bobbie Suttie]
The "hokey pokey" demo followed a demonstration of how you can warm up a dancer by taking her hand as shaking it like jelly. The "shakee" has the arm completely limp. The "shaker" holds that hand in bother of his/her hands and wiggle the arm back & forth. Then the challenge is to have the dancer stand on one foot and shake her leg - thus the hokey pokey. This pumps the blood into the arm & leg muscles - instant massage!!
Of course your goal is to have a lot of dancers do this at the same time so you don't make a complete fool of yourself.
[Posted by Bill Weaver]
What these massage techniques do is pushes out the toxins (forget the name) in the muscles that build up as muscles are used. These are what make the muscles tense during and after workout. (OK Bill, help me out here with the right terminology.) By pushing these out and relaxing the muscles, they can be used to their full advantage or performance level.
Mary Beth, The toxin you are referring to is probably lactic acid. Lactic acid is a by product of the anaerobic system, and when it accumulates to high amounts in the muscle and blood, causes muscular fatigue. It is also thought to be (but never proven) a cause of muscle soreness after exercise. Lactic acid is removed from the blood and muscle 4 different ways. Of the 4 ways, it is most commonly removed by oxidation. In this process the skeletal muscles, and other tissue to a much lesser extent, convert it back to an energy source used in the aerobic energy system. Conversion is best accomplished when using what is called the "exercise-recovery" periods as opposed to "rest-recovery" periods. This may explain why massage may help in removing lactic acid as it helps to "move" the blood back to the muscles to allow them to metabolize the acid. This also explains why you would be wiser to continue to move about after a particularly hard bout of exercise instead of remaining still.

* In other words - if you follow this advice and get hurt, we're sorry, and that was most certainly not the intention, but we don't accept any legal responsibility. Or to put it yet another way: if you feel like suing, don't. We never forced you to follow this anyway.

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