Are you training for the London Marathon? Remember to schedule regular massage treatments to ensure you keep flexible and help prevent injuries.

Did you know that massage can improve your running performance? Studies found that massage can make a difference during running training programmes.

When your training runs become longer, increasing the distance means more tiredness and more chances of injury. A tailored course of massage treatments can help with recovery after each run and speed up the removal of built-up metabolic waste from the muscles. Keeping injury-free is important - you don’t want to miss out on training miles because of shin splints, a sprained ankle or knee, or a pulled muscle. To ensure you maintain your body at peak condition, stretch after each run, do some exercises to strengthen the back and abdominal muscles and use a foam roller to ease out tension in the legs.

Massage can help muscles relax and lengthen after a run. Sport Medicine journals reported that massage can reduce the so-called Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS), those aches and pains that get even worse one or two days after a run. Studies also found that massage may help increase the body’s own immune defences by raising the levels of lymphocytes (cells that fight infection) while lowering levels of the stress hormone cortisol. In a nutshell, massage has the potential of getting you back on your feet quicker after a strenuous training session because it can help speed up your recovery. With regular massage, muscles can recuperate from fatigue and go back to full function in a shorter time compared to having no massage.

Massage can also be a great way to build awareness about your body: as you learn more about how to look after it, you also start noticing those small niggles that, if left untreated, could become problems that need more attention along the way. For example, chronic conditions can be prevented or their effects lessened.

An added bonus of having massage is that it can be used as a reward after a long run. In the last part of the training, as runs get longer and boredom and fatigue can start setting in, you need extra motivation to keep going. Looking forward to a massage after a run can be exactly what you need to keep motivated. You may also start feeling anxious about the competition element of the London Marathon: long waiting times, long queues, thousands of competitors. The atmosphere on the day is exciting but it can also induce stress in some people. Having regular massage treatments can help you feel more relaxed about the race, so you feel mentally in the zone.

After you have successfully completed the marathon, you can treat yourself to a recovery massage to help your body rid itself of aches and pains. If you have completed a marathon before you will know that walking up and down stairs will be a major challenge on Monday! That’s why having scheduled massage sessions throughout training can ease the pain and prevent the muscles from seizing up. Remember that the body needs to repair itself after a marathon: microscopic injuries and tears can happen in the muscles and tendons, therefore rest is an absolute necessity.

If you are short on time you could choose a foot and leg massage: give your bruised and battered legs and feet some TLC.

Get yourself on the massage table and you will probably sleep like a baby, too.

Book Your Post-Run Massage at Thai Kosai

If you work in the City and go for a lunchtime run, why not have your recovery massage at Thai Kosai? You can book an appointment after work and then go back home to rest and relax after a busy day.