What to Expect from Your First Sports Massage: Cupping, Myofascial Release, Deep Tissue, and Trigger Point Therapy
As an athlete, whether you're training for a HYROX event, competing in marathons, or just pushing yourself at the gym, your body takes on a lot of wear and tear. Muscle soreness, tightness, and knots are part of the game. That’s where a sports massage comes in to help your muscles recover and perform at their best.
At Recovery Mode, we offer a range of targeted recovery techniques to help you feel better and move more freely. In this post, we’ll walk you through what to expect when you get cupping, myofascial release, deep tissue massage, and trigger point therapy—and why hydration and rest afterward are so important.
Cupping: Feel the Relief of Suction Therapy
If you’ve ever seen athletes with circular bruises on their skin, they were likely using cupping. This therapy uses suction cups placed on tight or sore muscle areas to increase blood flow, reduce muscle tension, and speed up recovery.
What to Expect:
The therapist will place suction cups on specific muscle areas, and you'll feel a mild pulling sensation as the cups are placed. It's not painful, but it may feel odd at first. If you've had sore muscles, the suction may feel intense in those areas.
Cupping is especially helpful for muscles that are tight and need extra help getting the blood flowing back into them. Many people find that cupping helps relieve soreness and improves mobility, particularly after tough events like HYROX or long-distance races.
After the Session:
You may notice some red or purple marks where the cups were. These marks are completely normal and fade in a few days. You might feel a little sore, but many people report feeling looser and more flexible afterward.
Myofascial Release: Targeting the Connective Tissue
Your muscles are surrounded by fascia, a type of connective tissue that can get tight and cause discomfort if it’s not properly stretched. Myofascial release is a technique used to release tension in the fascia and improve flexibility.
What to Expect:
Your therapist will apply gentle, sustained pressure to areas of tension, particularly those that feel stiff or tight. It can feel a little uncomfortable at times, especially if you’re dealing with chronic tightness or pain in specific areas.
This technique is different from traditional massage because it targets not just muscles but the connective tissue around them, improving overall flexibility and muscle function.
Trigger points (muscle knots) are targeted to break up adhesions and promote relief.
After the Session:
It’s common to feel slightly sore or tender in the areas that were worked on. This should fade quickly. Many people experience a greater range of motion and reduced tightness in the muscles afterward.
Deep Tissue Massage: Breaking Up Chronic Tension
Deep tissue massage targets the deeper layers of muscle and tissue, helping to break up chronic tension and muscle knots.
What to Expect:
This technique involves firm pressure to penetrate deeper into the muscle tissue. While it’s effective for breaking up knots and adhesions (scar tissue), it can also feel uncomfortable at times.
If you've been training intensely for a marathon or have been dealing with long-term muscle tightness, your therapist may focus on problem areas like your shoulders, hamstrings, lower back, and calves. You might feel some deep discomfort when the therapist works on areas of tightness, but that’s a sign the muscle is responding to the treatment.
Mechanoreceptors in the skin and muscles are activated, stimulating the nervous system to reduce spasms and release metabolic byproducts like lactic acid.
After the Session:
During deep tissue massage, mechanical pressure stimulates lymphatic flow, enhancing detoxification and supporting muscle recovery.
The soreness should subside within a few hours or a day, and you’ll likely notice increased mobility, less muscle stiffness, and a better range of motion in those areas.
Drink plenty of water after the massage to help flush out toxins and support lymphatic drainage.
Light activity like walking or gentle stretching promotes blood flow and lymphatic drainage, aiding muscle recovery.
Trigger Point Therapy: Targeting Muscle Knots for Pain Relief and Recovery
Trigger point therapy is a highly effective technique designed to relieve muscle tension, pain, and discomfort caused by muscle knots or trigger points—small, tight, hyperirritable areas in the muscle that can cause pain locally or in other parts of the body (referred pain).
What to Expect:
Pressure Application: Your therapist will apply sustained, direct pressure to the trigger points (the muscle knots) to release the tension. This pressure can sometimes feel sharp or intense as it targets the tight muscle fibers.
Pain Sensation: Trigger points often refer pain to other areas of the body, so you might feel discomfort not only at the point being treated but also in surrounding muscles. This referred pain is a sign that the therapist is working on the muscle fibers that are contributing to the discomfort.
Uncomfortable but Effective: The sensation can be somewhat uncomfortable, especially when working on long-standing knots or deeply embedded tension. However, this discomfort is temporary and necessary to break up the tight muscle fibers. It is important to remember that muscle release often requires working through some discomfort, but the results are worth it—better mobility and pain relief.
After the Session:
Post-Treatment Soreness: It’s normal to feel some soreness or tenderness in the treated area after a trigger point therapy session. This is known as delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), a common response to deep muscle manipulation. The soreness should subside within 24 to 48 hours, and you may notice improved flexibility and reduced tension.
Immediate Relief: Many clients experience immediate relief in the form of reduced muscle tightness and pain after the session. As the knots are released, you may also notice a range of motion improvement in the treated muscles.
If you're looking to improve muscle recovery, relieve tightness, and enhance your performance, our Signature Sports Massage is designed to help you feel your best and move more freely. You can easily book your session online today using the Book Now tab on our website, or give us a call at 929-666-1729 for more information.