Help Your Massage Therapy Clients Avoid Sports Injuries

Your clients come to you for many different reasons. Some just want a soothing massage to help them relax. Other clients are seeking physical therapy for pain relief. Some of your clients may be athletes who include massage as a normal part of their training regimen. Regardless of why they’ve chosen to see you, your patients regard you as an information resource.

You understand the way their body’s muscles and connective tissues work together to keep them moving. You also know the damage that making the wrong moves can do to a person’s musculoskeletal system. There’s a sport for every season and a muscle injury for every sport. Whether your clients are weekend warriors or fitness fanatics, you can provide them with useful tips and advice to help them avoid sport-related injuries.

To help you help your clients stay active and safe, we’ve put together some resources on avoiding sports injuries. Use these resources as inspiration for building your own custom fact sheets, brochures, and articles. Add your personal touch and create content that educates and engages your client base.

Resources for Preparing a Top Notch Sports Safety Fact Sheet for Your Massage Therapy Clients

American Academy of Pediatrics Tip Sheet
The American Academy of Pediatrics regularly researches childhood injuries and illness and provides guidelines for professionals and parents. The AAP’s 2017 Sports Injury Prevention Tip Sheet is available in English or Spanish and lists specific actions children and their parents can take to avoid sports-related injuries. Among the most important tips are to wear properly fitting protective gear, take steps to strengthen muscles and improve flexibility, and remember to stay rested and hydrated.

Sports Medicine Information Guide
The editors at Sports Medicine Information advise readers to warm up before participating in a sports activity. They note that athletes should start with stretching and gradually increase the intensity of their pre-game exercises to prepare their bodies for action. The Sports Medicine Information website also warns of the risks of overreaching. This risk may be one that your clients aren’t aware of if they are just beginning to embrace exercise or sports as a part of their lifestyle. Your advice on the topic can save them a lot of frustration and pain.

Sports Injury Infographics
If you want to create a printed document to share with your patients, simple-to-use tools such as Canva or Piktochart make it easy. Using these tools, even the least artistic among us can create great charts or infographics. The UPMC Orthopaedic Care department, associated with the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Medical Sciences, has put together a great example with their infographic describing seven common sports injuries. Johns Hopkins Medicine has put together a sports injury infographic too. The Johns Hopkins’ printable infographic details symptoms, causes, and preventive measures for several different sport-related musculoskeletal injuries.

AMTA Sports Massage Ebook
Of course, massage therapists are at the forefront when it comes to sports injury prevention and treatment. The American Massage Therapy Association publication, Pulling Back the Curtain: A Look at Sports Massage Therapy is an amazing resource created specifically for massage therapists. Written by Steve Jurch, this document will provide you with everything you need to prepare a comprehensive piece of content to share with your clients. From range of motion assessments to managing delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), this book has it all.

More Resources are Just a Click Away
The above are just a few of the resources available to assist you in creating the perfect prevention package for your clients. There are many more sources online that you can turn to for ideas. In fact, the Physical Therapy Aide website has put together a list of 105! So if you need a little inspiration, just check out their 105 Premier Resources on Sports Injury Recovery.

A few clicks online can also provide you with access to images for any blog article, infographic, or brochure that you want to create for your clients. Websites such as Unsplash and Pixabay are wonderful resources for finding interesting photos and illustrations to include in your content.

Keeping You at Peak Performance

Just as your goal is to keep your clients in peak condition, our goal is to keep your business performing at its best. Using ClinicSense’s comprehensive massage therapy practice management platform keeps you away from paperwork and in front of patients. You can invest your time in providing the information and services your clients need to stay healthy and well while ClinicSense keeps your back office running.