TREATMENT

What is included in an AB Sports therapy treatment?

What is included in an AB Sports therapy treatment?

Our AB Sports Therapy Treatment will include a small consultation in which you will let the therapist know your injuries, aches/pains or your mobility struggles. The therapist will then tailor the treatment to treat the problem outlined.

The areas of focus will all be soft tissue which is the connective tissue forming fascia, muscles, tendons and ligaments. Your therapist will discuss in depth with you any queries you have about the treatment and also let you know what they are doing and areas they are working into throughout the session.

Generally sports massage is thought to aid recovery and enhance performance with athletes but we find our AB Sports Therapy Treatment useful for everyone. Don’t be afraid to get in touch. We see everyone of every type of lifestyle, all ages and all activity levels. This treatment is here to help you feel better and definitely not limited to those partaking in sports.

Our sessions include the use of cupping and scraping therapy at no additional cost, these additions are fully optional.

What is AB Sports cupping therapy?

AB Sports cupping therapy is a treatment using suction cups on the soft tissue for several different purposes:

Sports Cupping Placements

This is used to bring toxins to the surface to allow them to be easier accessed by your lymphatic system to drain.

The colouring of the ‘bruises’ is an indicator of stagnation in the tissues. This includes debris of dead cells and the toxins collected from the biosystem. There is a small amount of uptake from the capillaries however it is minimal.⠀

Regular cupping treatments can therefore enhance your lymphatic drainage and improve your recovery in sport.

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Cupping Trigger Points⠀

Cupping applies negative pressure to stretch the fascia and provide the same benefit achieved by a pressure point applied by the therapist. We use the cups in specific placements that allow us to extend/flex the muscle and release muscular tension.⠀

Cupping Around the Joint⠀

Cupping is used to again apply negative pressure and movement to the joint in order to open up connective tissues and release the joint. ⠀

We use the cups to loosen off the sticking around joints often caused by a build up of synovial fluid which can happen after injury.

What is AB Sports scraping therapy?

Scraping therapy (Gua-Sha) is the stretching of the fascia using a very thin, blunt blade. This therapy is most commonly used around the joints and across surfacable muscle areas (such as the shins and scapulas).

The use of scraping was originally used in ancient China and in ancient Chinese, Gua-Sha means the break up of fascia. Here, we treat fascia by stretching it as modern research shows we can’t physically break fascial tissues without surgery.

The Chinese method is therefore adapted and the tool of a thin, blunt blade is still used.

...& What is fascia?

This tissue is very important, we work mostly with your fascia when we use these techniques.

Your fascia is a thin cling film like substance that covers your whole body protecting your muscles and organs.

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This protective layer is made up of densely packed collagen fibers and is layered over each muscle like a stiff protection to stop us from over stretching and balances certain movements. ⠀

"While every anatomy lists around 600 separate muscles, it is more accurate to say that there is one muscle poured into six hundred pockets of the fascial webbing. The ‘illusion' of separate muscles is created by the anatomist's scalpel, dividing tissues along the planes of fascia. This reductive process should not blind us to the reality of the unifying whole." -Tom Myers⠀

Chronic stress to the fibers can encourage the fibers to thicken and adhese. These areas of fascia can then pull and feel very tight and uncomfortable, this can be very hard to get rid of with a simple stretch and return to exercise. ⠀

If you’ve gone through periods of inactivity or just regularly have inactive periods in a busy life your fascia can thicken. This could be as simple as sitting at a desk for 8 hours a day, a long commute and sitting stationary in the car or having an uncomfortable sleeping position. ⠀

This thickening IS reversible and you can have your fascial tissues loosened off, you can adopt good habits: stretching, exercise, foam rolling... and you can come see us! ⠀

We regularly treat tight, thick fascial tissue and we use a variety of methods to do so.⠀

In the pictures below you will be able to visualise this lower lumbar tight fascia through the suction cup. The cup was suctioned so many times to create a visual progress of the fascial smoothing treatment in which the tissue was scraped (gua-sha), frictioned (deep tissue manipulation) and active cupping (dragging of the suction cup over the tissue). ⠀

Your treatment may not necessary need to focus around fascia, this is just an insight and a visual product as to what we are talking about when we discuss it with you.