Muscle Release Technique Massage

First, FYI on the Garmin, when I connected to my computer, since it's a different unit, I had to associate it with a different user. So all my old runs for the year are logged under the old me and from tomorrow forward, my activities will be logged under the new me.

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Muscle Release Technique Massage

This morning I had a Muscle Release Massage. It's the second time I've had this type of massage. The first time was two days after running the Cleveland Marathon and I had no residual muscle soreness from the marathon after the massage. I was able to walk up and down stairs and get back to my running routine very quickly.

Having become a believer the first time, I scheduled another one. I've been feeling a little bit creaky after the heavy summer of running and weight training, and now the miles are starting to build as I get into the meat of the NYC Marathon training program.

As usual, the therapist, Kevin, started by asking me if I have any trouble spots. I told him about my achilles. He showed me where the tendons connect between the calf and somewhere else, blah, blah, blah technical muscle stuff let's just get started.

I layed down on the table face up and Kevin strapped me on with a couple of seat belts. This is so when he stretches my legs, my hips stay square and I don't try to compensate by using other muscle groups. First he stretched my hamstrings by lifting up my leg to a 90 degree angle to my body and massaging the muscle as he did this. He did about ten leg lifts, each time pushing my leg further back and I told him if there was any pain on a 1-10 scale. As he stretched the muscle, I breathed as I would while lifting weights. He stretched and massaged my quads, hip flexors, ITB, inner and outer thigh, calves, I don't even know the names of all the muscles he worked. All the while I'm breathing and telling him 1-10 if there is pain (there wasn't). The whole lower body part of the massage is like this. I lied face down for hips, buttocks, feet, more hip flexors. Upper body was a typical sports massage.

I highly recommend this type of massage for all kinds of athletes. I just lucked into finding out about it, because I already went to Kevin for my massages before he got the Muscle Release certification. I imagine it would take some calling around to find someone certified in the technique, unless you're in Colorado which is where the originator of the method, Michael Young, holds his workshops.

Tomorrow I'm going to hit the pavement again and see how the achilles holds up.