When do I treat myself to a treatment then? Prioritising treatments for performers.

movemethics
Mar 14, 2023
5 min read

Your schedule is already tight as it is, and so may be your budget. However you keep hearing all about taking care of your body. Scrap that. YOU WANT TO TAKE CARE OF YOUR BODY! Your body works so hard for you every day. You treat it to stretching after activity, sometimes you allocate a separate time just to release the tension. You may even take a bath. You secretly dream of a massage, of someone to take away the tension and replace it with a new energy that like a miracle floods your system.

Look, there are few hacks on how to maintain the physicality so that we can work at an optimum level and avoid injuries as much as we can but the reality is - incorporating soft tissue work done by the professional will mentally and physically take you to another level in your practice.

Many performers have asked - what should the treatment regime look like? We already know the treatment feels nice (or the after-effects at least hah), so with unlimited budget we would do it as often as possible, but is there a science to it?

Doing some research on the subject matter it won't be a surprise to say - there is insufficient research to arrive to a solid conclusion. Once you start digging any subject, specifically in performing arts, you will quickly realise that our field is extremely under researched, therefore sometimes we do have to refer back to our own experiences, and be very thorough with their analysis.

To best tackle the subject of this article, I was considering some of the peak periods for performers based on my own schedule and I realised it all came down to recovery and speeding the process of it up for best results? In this article I will break down some of the key moments in which I would recommend booking in massages and other soft tissue treatments. Looking into the research of recovery, massage treatments showed to be the most effective when dealing with DOMS - delayed onset muscle soreness (that pain walking down the stair after a leg day in the gym) and fatigue (6).

Hausswirth and Le Meur, 2011 define recovery 'as the return to homeostasis of various physiological systems following metabolic and inflammatory challenges and muscle damage induced by exercise training sessions' (6).

So let's see how massaging actually works!

Mechanically, a therapist applies a pressure manually or with the help of tools to soft tissues (including skin, fascia and muscles as key tissues).

Weerapong et al. (2005) has beautifully put some of the effects of the massage neatly in the table, articulating it so much better than my words would. So here you go:

Source: see Bibliography 2.

But what does this mean specifically to you, my dear performer?

The direct effects of massage on performance have not been noted (meaning = massage does not directly make you stronger, faster or increase your stamina). However, massage demonstrated the ability to improve flexibility and that is one of the components to dance training we all desire, therefore could be considered alongside your flexibility training for best results.

In next articles I will look closer on Vagus nerve stimulation and its benefits. If you come across content about Vagus Nerve - massage is your good friend :)

Now that we know the logistics behind the massage, where do we place it in our schedule, what are the periods in which we should care about the regularity of it more and how frequent are we talking in general?

Let's consider it in periods:

Pre-performance: considering periods before intensive rehearsal periods, before starting dance/performing college, before starting a new project. Giving your body a chance to reset and even help with mental preparation for a new challenge. Depending on the therapist and their skillset you may want to get a posture or even a skill analysis to get a good baseline and a point of reference for your training progress. Good dance colleges do the baseline screening for their cohorts at the start of their first year.
During intensive periods of training/performing regular treatment will help speed up the recovery and keep your body as well as mind ready to keep going on a high level without a compromise.
Post-performance: a treatment after a longer period of performing/training can be a great way to celebrate your hard work and in a way clos-off that chapter, reassess your body, skills and check in with that initial baseline.

Regardless of the phase you are in - make sure you are regular with your treatments and simply increase the frequency of treatments as your training/performing increases. Also, maximise the effects of the treatment by getting the right type!

Types of massages

The types I would recommend to performers are: deep tissue, sports massage and Thai massage. They all focus on trigger points, increasing mobility getting deeply into the muscle. Depending on the therapist they may have their own unique style of performing those (there is a bit more consistency with Thai massage comparing to other 2), therefore there is nothing wrong with asking what the therapist's approach is so you can choose the one that suits your needs best. A good therapist will be able to help you make that choice or simply adjust their techniques to what your body needs in the given moment.

Other methods

If your performing company provides no assistance with bodily care and your funds are a bit low, there are alternative methods to ensure that your recovery is supported as best as it can be. Here is a list of few methods/factors to take into account:

Sleep
Nutrition
Hydration
Active recovery/Mobility work
Compression garments
Foam rolling
Cold therapy, Water immersion

So to wrap this up and answer the question of when to treat yourself to a treatment? Guess what, there isn't a perfect answer! HOWEVER, one thing you can be certain about is that to gain the most benefits you have to be consistent. Once a month massage treatment combined with alternative methods to assist your recovery can be sufficient for less intense period, however the more intense your training/performing periods get so should the frequency in soft tissue work. Additionally, the key periods to consider are the ones prior to starting something new and intense (e.g. when you go to dance college/university after a long summer break, before going into a period of loads of summer festival performances, before going into a long production and so on). You could also see massages as a great closure to your performing/training season to help with transition from high intensity weeks into the recovery.

With Love,

Angie

To Book Your Sports Massage visit The Booking Page.

Bibliography:

When do I treat myself to a treatment then? Prioritising treatments for performers.

Recent Posts

Comments