Sports massage is a popular and effective technique that complements McTimoney manipulation by working on the soft tissues surrounding and supporting the skeletal structures and joints. 

Massage stimulates the blood and lumphatic circulaton, can alleviate pain and restore movement amplitude.  In this way massage can be very helpful in reducing time and boosting quality of healing and increase the quality of movement achieved.

Used as a preventative maintenance technique massage has benefits of aiding the removal of muscle waist products that accumulate after strenuous exercise and reduce the risk of injury to joints by monitoring muscle flexibility 

Massage for rehabilitation 

Massage can play a very important role in rehabilitation after injury or surgery by decreasing muscle pain and tension, maintaining flexibility in affected muscle groups, lengthening connective tissue and improving muscle tone.  Immobilisation has been proven detrimental to tissues involved in locomotion.  The use of controlled rehabilitation in the early stages of recovery from surgery or injury limits the effects of disuse on bone, cartilage, soft tissue, ligaments, tendons and muscles and therefore speeds up recovery and aids a return to previous performance ability.

A chain of events occur within the body due to an initial injury, leading to a vicious circle of further injury:

Injury > continued work over pain > inflammation > muscle spasm > reduction of circulation > muscle disuss and atrophy > loss of appropriate movement > employment of inappropriate muscles for compensatory movement > altered forces on surrounding structures > risk of further injury.....

Sports massage can help with pain management by:

• Aiding in identifying the source of muscular pain through palpation
• Decrease the mechanical causes
• Facilitate tissue healing
• Breaking the cycle of poor locomotion and complensatory movement.
• Increasing venous and lymphatic return
• Mobilise and eliminate adhesions
• Improve cutaneous perception
• Promote mental and physical relaxation
• Improve comunicaiton between animal and owner

Passive or Active range of motion exercises can provide proprioceptive stimulation by copying the physiological movement pattern inorder to recondition neuro-muscular function.