Michalis Polycarpou – Exercise Physiologist writes:

History and origins of massage

The practise of massage has been established well before, since Hippocrates and the fourth century BC. Ancient Greeks progressed the massage application in a way that it is still used until today. The general and accepted term of massage is correlated with the pain and tension relieve of the muscles and joints using the hands.

The past few decades the massage has started to be recognised as a different profession and a vast amount of research has extensively looked in the therapeutic effects of massage.

Development of Sport Massage

The first form of sports massage was developed in the late eighteen and early nineteenth century in order to help fencers and gymnasts to prepare and recover from competitions. Since then, sports massage began to be popular across cycling tours where rapid recovery is essential and soon sports massage appeared in the rest vast majority of sports (tennis, swimming, football), where the modern form of sports massage rapidly developed.

Sports massage protocols

Pre-event massage: A massage performed before a certain event where the goal is to wake up the body and increase overall circulation and more specific the blood flow to the muscles that are going to be used for the event. This type of massage is short and fast in pace. A sports massage before an event can decrease the risk of injury and provide an advantage if delivered only to one opponent and not to the other.

Post-event massage: A massage after a certain event where the goal is to recover and repair the muscles. The lactic acid, although its useful metabolic role during exercise it should be removed after the event in order to allow maximum recovery before the next event. A sports massage can speed up the recovery and allow maximum recovery in a shorter period of time. Specific techniques of a post-event massage target the venous return direction, where it helps the lactic acid and other metabolic wastes be removed easily across the circulation.