Then, when it finishes the job, muscles could:
a) still work – keep the same tension,
b) rest – be relaxed (usually something on the scale between).
What happens to your muscles after training will massively affect the efficiency of your body, training plan, and sports goals.
Tension & energy
Undesirable tension consumes a lot of our energy! It doesn’t mean that you become better even when you sit on a chair! It means that you feel more tired and have less energy for your training.
Also, your antagonistic muscles with undesirable tension work against you—this negation of your power could be massive, wasting your energy and making you slower and weaker. On the other hand, relaxed muscles spend less energy and make you more efficient. For example, if a marathon runner releases 10% of his tension, he has about 10% more energy to run quicker.
Then, high tension can also limit your training. If you relax your muscles, you could increase your training plan.
So, how can we get rid of undesirable tension?
Probably one of the easiest ways to relax your body is massage therapy. A specialist can release muscle tension by stimulating your muscles and attachments.
However, it’s good to combine massage with other methods, such as feeling your tension and controlling it with the mind, stretching, sauna, better posture, and others.
Healing & Recovery
What is our instinctive reaction if we hurt our head? We usually say ‘ow’ and rub the injured area with our hands. Why do we do this? Because just a simple touch starts a healing process.
Hard training is a bit similar like a small injury, therefore with the right stimulation, we can massively help to the natural healing process – recovery.
Massage increases your blood circulation, which brings higher levels of oxygen, nutrients and immunoglobulins to your cells.
Massage also stimulates the lymphatic system, detoxifying the body’s tissues and aiding in the reduction of inflammation and swelling.
The elasticity of your tissue
Too tensed tissue causes many sports injuries. Too tensed muscles, tendons & ligaments are more fragile (like the tensed spring of a guitar) – they can be easily injured. Massage relaxed tensed muscles, warm-up & structure of your tissue – it makes it more elastic.
No wonder professional sports teams have a club massage therapist. They know that massage increases the efficiency of athletes and is also great for preventing injury (the nightmare of athletes and often also the reason why their sports careers end).
Please don’t wait until you feel pain from a too-tense body; don’t risk your health, prevent injury, and upgrade yourself by massage—a natural, healthy method whose positives have been tested by many cultures over many centuries.
