A Sportsmassage is a type of massage that focuses on problem areas. Which muscles are under tension? Is the body giving any pain signals? Are there any restrictions in movements? Are the muscles feeling stiff and rigid?

Muscles and soft tissues are manipulated towards pain relief and tension relief with different massage techniques. The webbing of the fascia is softened, muscles are lengthened and triggerpoints are treated.

Although the massage can be though, most people leave feeling refreshed, relaxed and more loose.

• Reducing muscle tension
• Eases muscle pain
• Releases triggerpoints
• Prevent injuries
• Accelerates muscle recovery
• Enhances blood circulation
• Speeds up excretion of waste products

Depending on the professional, massages can be very different. Gin likes to work efficiently. Using various massage techniques to release the muscles from tension. She’s especially good in locating the problem areas. Depending on what your body needs, her approach can vary. She uses triggerpoints, rolling, kneading, friction, vibration, stretching and other massage techniques to get your body to loosen up again. Her strong hands tackle your aches and pains. A professional with noticeable knowledge about the human body. Ask her any questions you may have. She will gladly give you advice on how to handle your personal tense spots.

As a woman it can have a more serene effect to have a female masseur. You can enjoy your massage at ease. There is no setback in firmness of the massage. Gin acquired strong hands from a lifetime of doing sports and years of massages.

Triggerpoint performance, knee aches & pains- June 2014
Triggerpoint performance, hip & lower back – June 2014
Classical massage- 10 May- 2 June 2016
Headache massage specialization – 2 juli 2016
Back, Neck and shoulder specialization – 27 August 2016
Lower back specialization – 18 Oktober 2016
Elastic taping 28 Oktober – 4 November 2016
NGS Sportmassage 18 November 2016 – June 2017
NGS Certified Sport masseuse -Dutch association for Sports massage
Yoga Massage, Mood Massages, February – March 2020
Performance stretch specialist Level 1, San Diego – June 2022
Recertified NGS sportmassage – December 2022
Masterclass Deep Tissue + Thai stretching, Wassa Lakkham, Berlin 4-5 Oktober 2023

People who can benefit from a sportsmassage are athletes, people with physically demanding jobs or people who work behind a desk all day. It can be great if you’re suffering from headaches, stiff neck, lower back pain or a shoulder that is acting up. Just to name a few examples.

What these people have in common are stiff muscles, muscles knots that radiate pain and even an overall rigid body that is not allowing you to move freely.

30 minutes : time for one region or bodypart [neck region] [upperback+shoulder] [Front and back of 1 leg]
60 minutes:  time for multiple areas or bigger bodyparts [whole back] [calfs + hamstrings + glutes on both sides] [neck+ upperback + shoulders]
90 minutes: time for [quads +hamstrings+calfs+back]
These are just some examples.

A pain free life is the best way to go. So taking precautions is a thing we all should do. Get yourself a treatment about once a month without any specific pain symptoms. That way, any tension or knots are taken care of before it creates any problems. Pick the area’s that you feel are the most affected by your everyday life or training regimen.

If you’re someone who likes to workout a lot or do regular heavy physical work. Getting a massage every week or every other week is a good regime.

If you have been having problems with muscle tension, stiffness and knots for quite some time, you need to have multiple sessions. You need to plan your next appointment before the muscles start tensing up again, so you can break down and get a little deeper each time. For this situation it’s best to go between 2 and 4 days for the next session.

Generally speaking, a sportsmassage is not painless. But at the same time, can be nice and relaxing. People often say “painful but in a good way”. Some of the massage techniques feel really good. When triggerpoint are being used, it’s important to keep breathing. Try to let go of any tension when you exhale. This way the muscles relax faster and it is a lot less painful.

How painful a sportsmassage is, depends on the person. How high is you pain threshold? In what kind of state is your body? Are you able to relax if you take deep slow breaths? Just remember that you can always signal or tell the masseur; this is to much for me.

Massages can be very different between practitioners. Every masseur has their own approach. So sometimes it can be the same thing. Sometimes something totally different. When you take a look at the education and workplace of the practitioner, you can learn more about their personal approach. Generally speaking, i think of a deep tissue massage, as a stronger full body massage. Like you would see in a spa-like environment. A sportmassage is a stronger massage that focuses on tight muscles, fascia and tensions. Personally focus on attacking the problem areas and relieving in pain and tightness as much as possible. You can compare a sportsmassage with a massage a physiotherapist would give you.

When we compare the two studies, we see that a sportsmassge has a longer learning period.

A deep tissue massage course is about 1 full day class with a workload of 4 hours per week, during 1 month. So 4 days and 16 hour study load.

A sportsmassage course has about 17 full day classes. And 6 hour study load per week during a period of 8 to 9 months. So that’s 17 days and 234 hour study load. It also requires a portfolio, first aid certification and an internship. There will be a national exam hold by NGS with both theoretical and practical exam. To keep your licence, you need to upkeep massage education and work hours.

A healthy muscle should be able to contract and relax. So called filaments slide across each other to make that happen. Sometimes a segment can get stuck and creates stacked layers that are sticking to each other. We call this phenomenon knots. Another word for it is myofasciale triggerpoints. You can also imagine it as partial contractions in a muscle fiber.

If the contcration upholds for a longer period, it tend to get worse and worse. This is because muscles need blood filled with oxygen. The oxygen is needed to convert energy to movement. The waste that is created after conversion needs to be taken away by the blood flow. So when there is little blood flow, waste tends to build up in those rigid spots. There still needs to be lot’s of research to investigate assumptions that we have about muscle knots. One thing is clear: knots are bothersome. Triggerpoint can cause pain, stiffness and spasms.

Each body part takes about 10-15 minutes. (A bodypart would be: calfs, one quad, forearms, left trapezius, glutes.)

Choose 60min if you want a massage for the front and the back of the legs.
Choose 30min if you’d like a massage for one leg or one shoulder.
Choose 90min if you want a massage for the front and back of the legs and the back.

Full body massage is not possible in 90minutes.

If you need help choosing the right time span, just send me a text or email.

Let’s first take a look what a physiotherapist does. A physio is specialized in helping people who are affected by injury, illness or disability with bones, muscles, ligaments or nerves. They will diagnose, give advice, prescribe exercises, massage or manipulate joints. Manual therapy is a physical treatment to treat musculoskeletal pain and disability. It includes kneading, manipulation of muscles and joints and mobilization. They can crack your back or other joints. The sound comes from a chance in pressure in an environment with both gas and liquid. Imagine the sound of a champagne cork.

When you have an injury with your muscles, bones, ligaments or nerves, you go to a physiotherapist. When you are pre-injury or already following advice from a physio, you can go to a sportmasseur. They are specialized in different techniques to help with muscles tension, muscle knots or stiff muscles. Usually a physio doesn’t have a big time frame to massage the affected area. A sportmasseur can massage for a longer period. Which can lead to a greater effect in the muscles and fascia.

If you’re not sure who you need to visit, just contact me with any questions.

Scientifically there is still much to learn about the fascia. We know now that fascia plays an important role in the human body. It’s is a thin layer of connective tissue that forms a network around and through every muscle, blood vessel, bone, nerve fiber and organs. You can imagine the structure of the fascia by comparing it with the membrane of a grapefruit. When the fascia starts sticking to its environment, you can feel stiff and rigid.

To prevent getting cramps: drink enough water to stay hydrated. “Dried” muscles tend to cramp more. If you’re restricting salt in your diët, i would advise you to restrict it a little less. Make sure you do a good warm-up before you start exercising. Stretch your muscles regularly and roll them out with a foam roller. If we talking about supplements, you can take some magnesium bisglycinate.

The location is in Amsterdam noord.

Ko van Dijkhof 71