Massage before or after a race?

WandaVaughn

I have a birthday and a first half marathon this Saturday. I would love to have a massage on the same day as the race, but they don't have any open appointments. Would it be ok to have a Swiss/deep tissue massage combo the day before or better to wait until Monday? I don't want to mess up the muscles before the race!

Duck_Puddle

I would not want anyone doing any deep tissue anything on me a few days after a long race. That sounds dreadful. I would either have a post-race massage (which isn’t deep and is about moving blood/fluids/etc to facilitate recovery) or I would wait until I was recovered and then go have a regular massage. I would probably go with the latter. I would also not have a deep tissue the day before-or even a couple days (depending on how deep).

Happy birthday and have a great race!

lporter229

Duck_Puddle wrote: »

I would not want anyone doing any deep tissue anything on me a few days after a long race. That sounds dreadful. I would either have a post-race massage (which isn’t deep and is about moving blood/fluids/etc to facilitate recovery) or I would wait until I was recovered and then go have a regular massage. I would probably go with the latter. I would also not have a deep tissue the day before-or even a couple days (depending on how deep).

Happy birthday and have a great race!

I agree with all of this. I would definitely wait until after the race for various reasons, among which, deep tissue messages can leave you sore for several days if done correctly. I also agree that I would not go for a deep tissue message until at least 2-3 days after a long race. In fact, most good therapists will not do it that soon after a race because the tissues are damaged and need time to repair.

TavistockToad

I had a sports massage the day after my last half, which was great. Tell them you have just run a half so they go easy.