Injuries.....it’s all in the mind!

Well, maybe not “all”, but bear with me while I explain.

The power of the human mind fascinates me, and I believe most of us are only using a fraction of its extraordinary capacity at the moment.

Consider a couple of extreme examples;

We’ve all probably known or heard of elderly couples where one of them passes away, only for the other to pass away within an extremely short space of time. It happens too often to be just mere coincidence. We talk about them “dying of a broken heart” and yet it seems to me that they are able to turn their understandable thoughts of grief and not wishing to carry on into a physical manifestation.

Conversely, I’m sure we’ve all experienced stories of people who have been diagnosed with serious illness, but who have taken an incredibly positive approach to recovery and have confounded medical science to either recover completely or, at least, prolong their life much longer than expected.

Both are surely examples of how the mind can affect physical health.

Now equate that to the situations we find ourselves in as athletes, and it doesn’t take a huge leap to see that the mind can have a vital effect on injuries we sustain and how we recover from those injuries.

As an example of the former, it’s amazing how many people get niggles that affect training in the build-up to a major event about which they’re nervous. Conversely, how many times have you finished a run or a long bike ride, during which you’ve felt fine, only to be in pieces for days afterwards and left with a legacy injury – but the mind was focused on the job in hand so ignored the injury at the time.

On a personal level, I suffered with what seemed to be a serious knee problem prior to my Bob Graham attempt in 2010, to the extent that I was planning to call it off and leave it for the year. At some point, I made a conscious decision to commit 100% for the attempt, with no thoughts of failure, and from that moment forward I had no knee problems at all (partly aided and abetted by a strict regime of knee strengthening exercises I committed to).

So what implications does this have for us as athletes? And, in particular, what implications when it comes to injuries.

Well firstly, on one level, when you get these niggles, it’s always worth searching inside yourself for why they have arisen now. It may be because you’ve changed training regime significantly? Or it may be because you have a major event coming up which you’re nervous about? Are there other stresses and strains in your life which are affecting your positivity and, maybe, causing physical manifestations of that stress? Have you simply lost some motivation for training at the moment? Search yourself for the answers and be honest with yourself?

Secondly, having looked for reasons why you might have got the injury in the first place, are you ready to commit, both mentally and physically, to recovering from it?

One of the main problems we all face when injured, is accepting the fact and acting accordingly. We refuse to believe it and place our faith in “running it off”. Even when we’re advised not to run, we think it’s worth a “test run” to see how it holds up. Or, having been advised to build up running again from a mile base with only slight increases each run, we head out for 20 miles over the hills.

What I see in my practice, and what I’m coming to appreciate more for myself as well, is that only when we mentally accept the injury and commit to sorting out the problem, will we be able to begin the recovery.

Once committed, we adopt a different mindset, have a different motivation in everything we do, and every action we take will be geared towards proper recovery from the injury.

This may mean we stop running for a while. It may mean cross-training to maintain fitness. It will almost certainly mean stretching and strengthening regimes on a regular basis to address the weakness which has caused the injury in the first place.  I’d humbly suggest that it will almost certainly include a commitment to regular sports massage, which will greatly facilitate the recovery (both in terms of the “hands-on” work and the advice on stretching, strengthening, training etc that a good sports massage practitioner should provide).Once we have a commitment and a positivity towards recovery, we’ll start to see improvement.

So, next time you have an injury, I invite you to stop for a moment and think, before deciding how to move forward. Think why you might have the injury and decide whether you’re committed to recovering from it. And you may be surprised at the results........

What is sports massage? What can it do for me?

Sports massage is talked about everywhere now, and it’s generally taken for granted that everyone knows what that means. But do you? It seemed like the right place to start this blog by looking at what we mean by sports massage and also answering the question “what can it do for me?” and how it can achieve those benefits.

What is sports massage?

Sports massage can best be described as the manipulation and assessment of soft tissues. By soft tissues, we mean skin, muscles, tendons, ligaments and fascia (a term I will return to in future blogs because it’s gaining increasing importance in our understanding of how the body works).

Most people would probably consider sports massage to be a deeper massage, working into the tissues and, in general, that would be correct. A properly qualified sports massage practitioner will have a thorough knowledge of anatomy and physiology and will be working into specific muscles to identify potential knots, restrictions and imbalances, all of which may affect performance adversely.

A typical sports massage session will go further that this though and, as well as “hands on massage”, will also look at postural assessment, may involve some assisted stretching and will also provide post-massage advice in respect of stretching, strengthening and injury recovery. All of these will help to provide an overall picture and allow the practitioner to assist the client in achieving optimum performance and avoiding injury.

So how does it work?

There are a number of different ways in which sports massage works on a person’s body. They can be best split into the different systems they affect;

Muscular system:

When we use our muscles, they suffer micro trauma. This can lead to scar tissue and adhesions within the muscle fibres. If these go undetected, an injury will result at some stage because there is a weakness in the muscle. At the very least, the performance of that particular muscle will be impaired meaning you will have less than “full power”.

Massage can alleviate this by releasing restrictions, realigning muscle fibres and stopping the build-up of scar tissue.

Cardiovascular system:

The cardiovascular system moves blood around the body, delivering oxygen and nutrients. Sports massage helps to increase blood flow and will therefore assist in delivering these nutrients, which in turn promote healthy recovery and first-class performance from our muscles.

Sports massage can also help to stimulate lymph flow and this will help to flush out toxins and waste products from our system.

Nervous system:

The nervous system allows signals from the brain to reach muscles and tell them how to move and also allows “feedback” from muscles, tendons, ligaments etc to the brain to enable balance and movement. If those signals are interrupted, this won’t work so well.

A typical example of this is when you have what is known as a “trigger point” within a muscle. The muscle can become tight and constricted and the muscle will not function properly. In fact, recent research has suggested that even trigger points which are not causing pain (and about which you may therefore be unaware) can cause a significant decrease in muscle performance.

Thus sports massage can help by identifying and eradicating these trigger points. In addition, the manipulation of the soft tissues within sports massage can have a stimulating effect on the sensory receptors in the nervous system.

Skeletal system:

Although sports massage is focussed on soft tissues, joints will function better and be put under less stress if the soft tissues are less restricted and function well and thus sports massage can be beneficial towards the skeletal system.

So what benefits will I feel?

There are a number of ways in which you may directly feel the benefits, including the following;

-          Injury prevention:   regular massage will identify small problems before they become big ones so you should notice a reduction in the amount of injuries you suffer

-          Faster recovery times:   as we have seen, massage has many good effects on the body and these, cumulatively, should lead to quicker recovery from hard training sessions and races, allowing you to train and race harder in the future

-          Faster injury recovery:   the treatment of injuries and the advice given in respect of rehabilitation from injuries should ensure that injuries heal quicker and heal better than they would otherwise

-          Better flexibility:  relaxed, functioning muscles should be more flexible and work done on stretching during sessions will help to increase this flexibility, together with the post-session advice given on stretching yourself

-          Better posture:  again, all of the above effects of sports massage sessions should help to ensure a better overall posture

-          Pain relief:  tension in muscles can cause pain, as can the build up of waste products in the muscles. Sports massage addresses both of these.

-          Enhanced immune system:  by stimulating the flow of the lymphatic system, sports massage can potentially help to enhance the immune system, which may be noticeable

-          Relaxation:  through the relaxation of muscles during sports massage, you may well experience an overall feeling of relaxation and reduction in stress

Remember that the whole point is to make sure that you, as an athlete, are in the best possible condition, both mentally and physically, to enable you to achieve the highest level of performance that you can and to reach your goals.

Any advantage that you can get, whether physiological or psychological, can make that difference between achieving what you want to achieve and just missing out. Bearing in mind all of the potential benefits of sports massage, it’s hopefully clear that it can play a major part.

A quick introduction......

The first post of a new blog, and a quick introduction to who I am, what I do and what this blog is about.

I'm Richard Airlie-Gilbert, a Level 4 qualified Sports Massage Practitioner, based in the northern Highlands (roughly the Inverness area!). I qualified several years ago with SPS in Gloucester and now practice a couple of days a week at the Inverness Therapy Clinic, as well as providing sports massage at either my home or on a mobile basis.

The business name is "Run To The Hills Sports Massage" and, as well as this blog, you can also find me on facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Run-To-The-Hills-Sports-Massage/215150135245640  In addition, at some point in the near future, I'll be setting up my website at www.runtothehills.co.uk

As well as the above, I'm also a keen hillrunner, having taken part in plenty of races, done a lot of training and had my fair share of injuries. I like to think that this gives me a good insight into the challenges faced by athletes who come to see me, whether they are runners or not.

As for the purpose of this blog, I want to expand upon and share some of my thoughts on topical issues as they arise, (whether that be provoked by new articles and research or, more practically, by instances I've come across in my everyday practice) in the hope that this information and debate may be of some use to people who read the blog. I'm always open to comments and suggestions.

I hope you enjoy.........