If you are getting out there and exercising this winter, good on you! Perhaps you are in training for a marathon. But remember that sports massage should play an important part of your regime, whether you are an athlete or just increasing your activity levels. Massage has a number of benefits both physical, physiological and psychological for everyone. However, sports massage can help maintain the body in generally better condition, prevent injuries and loss of mobility, cure and restore mobility to injured muscle tissue, boost performance and allow you to keep exercising for longer as you age. Massage as part of your exercise regime has numerous benefits. The stroking movements in massage suck fluid through blood and lymph vessels. This is especially important in tight or damaged muscle tissue, as a tight muscle will squeeze blood out like a sponge, depriving the tissues of vital nutrients and energy to repair. Deep massage causes the pores in tissue membranes to open, enabling fluids and nutrients to pass through. This helps remove waste products such as lactic acid and encourage the muscles to take up oxygen and nutrients and recover quicker. Massage stretches muscles in ways they may not normally be stretched, and can help break down scar tissue which otherwise may cause inflexibility and areas prone to pain and injury. Hard training can make tissues hard and inelastic, all the stretching in massage helps reverse this. All these benefits also help us non-athlete types keep our muscles in top form. Massage can also be great for chronic diseases, specifically arthritis, osteoporosis, postural problems, stress, anxiety, depression, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and inflammatory disorders. Wellness Massage Therapy has a skilled therapist who specializes in sport and remedial massage and can work with those of us who are fitness freaks, light exercisers, ageing or facing any of the above conditions.