07/10/2018 Guildhall- Plymouth 10k

During this event I spent 5 hours in the Guildhall massaging participants of the Plymouth 10k, using pre and post massage techniques. My aims for this particular event were to relive stress and tension of the leg and back muscles of the client before and after the 10K race had taken place.

What the event consisted of:

Upon arrival at the guildhall at 7am on Sunday morning, We were briefed upon the layout and set-up of the massage beds, who would be working where and the rotations we would be performing throughout the day. We were then split into 2 groups, those who had experience in massage and those who were not as confident. Having already experienced a year of massage training, I fell in the experienced category and therefore I was paired with someone whom had not done massage before. This meant that alongside massaging I had to help to give my partner confidence within the types of massage we would be performing throughout the event such as, Effleurage (warming up the limb and spreading the medium around the area to be massaged) and Petrissage (kneading and wringing getting into the muscles slightly deeper). Clients we constantly coming through to the pop up clinic getting massages as we were following massage, wipe down, clean down and repeated this system on a new client. Throughout this experience I developed upon my own previous knowledge of the massage techniques, as well as picking up a few tips from the other therapists that I was working alongside. This experience allowed me to build confidence within my massaging ability, receive positive client feedback on the massage that I had given and allowed me to reflect upon my own performance.

What I would do better?

Due to the amount of clients that required treatment during this event, our sessions were extremely rushed and only 3 minutes could be spared per client. This meant that we had to speed through each massage to get everyone in using only effleurage to spread the medium and then superficial petrissage. It would have been more beneficial for the athlete if we could massage on them for longer. This could be achieved if we had more beds and more massage therapists to cope with the workload.
Organisation was not a strong point for us during this event. Everyone managed to turn up on time and we were set up ready for the clients to come through however, due to the rush we were frantically running around each other trying to find the massage lotion, couch roll and hygienic wipes in between clients. Due to equipment not being in the most idyllic places we spent a lot of our change over time trying to find different pieces of equipment around our massaging area. A way of overcoming this would be to ensure that all massage therapists have their equipment beside their bed ready for before the athletes come in to be massaged.
Pre-event massage was a weakness for me as I had never been experienced in the techniques involved within this however, after watching another therapist perform pre-event massage I asked question of how they were performing it and got the basic answers that I needed to perform it. This later lead me to question why we perform pre-event massage and what physiological responses/ effects does it have on the body. As a result of this I have given myself some further reading/learning to complete to ensure before my next massage event I will know why pre-event massage is required.

THINGS TO REMEMBER:
#1. Everyone has different massage techniques that works for them, try them all and find what works for you.
#2. You can always change the height of the bed so, to protect your back keep a wide stance.
#3. Ensure you check with the client if they are enjoying the massage and that the pressure is suitable for them.
#4. Organisation is very important, the more organised you are the easier the activity will become.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: 

While at the 10k, I noticed that a large quantity of athletes were experiencing more painful symptoms within the left legs opposed to the right leg. This left me thinking of why there was a higher number of people with tension most commonly in the left legs and not so much in the right leg. Off the back of this experience, I set myself the task to research why this could have happened (reasons why this happened) and ways in which the athlete would be able to train to reduce this tightness in the one side. alongside the previously stated research into the physiological effects of pre-event massage on an athlete.