Sports Massage
Mobile Sports Massage
Performance-focused bodywork designed for bodies that train, compete, and push limits. Sports massage combines deep pressure, assisted stretching, and targeted recovery techniques to reduce injury risk, speed recovery, and improve the way your body moves. Your therapist arrives at your home with everything needed. You bring the sore muscles.
What Sports Massage Is Built For
Sports massage is not a single technique. It is a collection of methods selected based on the athlete, the sport, and the timing relative to training or competition. A pre-event session is fast, stimulating, and focused on increasing blood flow to the muscles that are about to work. A post-event session is slower, focused on reducing inflammation and flushing metabolic waste. A maintenance session falls between the two, targeting chronic patterns that develop from repetitive athletic movement. Your therapist selects the approach based on where you are in your training cycle.
The techniques include deep tissue strokes, myofascial release, trigger point therapy, assisted stretching (PNF and active isolated), compression, and cross-fiber friction. Unlike a relaxation massage, sports massage is interactive. Your therapist may ask you to contract a muscle against resistance, move a joint through its range, or actively stretch while they apply pressure. This engagement produces results that passive massage cannot match: measurable improvements in flexibility, faster recovery between training sessions, and reduced incidence of overuse injuries.
Research supports these outcomes. A meta-analysis published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that massage reduced delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS) by 30 percent at 72 hours post-exercise. Studies from the American College of Sports Medicine show that post-exercise massage reduces inflammation markers and promotes mitochondrial biogenesis, the process by which your muscles build new energy-producing cells. Sports massage is not a luxury for athletes. It is a performance tool.
Sports massage is not a spa service. It is a recovery tool. KEN Mobile Massage brings clinical-quality sports bodywork to your home, on your schedule, timed to your training cycle.
Is Sports Massage Right for You?
Great fit if you...
Train regularly at a gym, track, pool, court, or field and want to recover faster between sessions
Are preparing for a specific event like a marathon, triathlon, tournament, or competition
Experience recurring overuse patterns like IT band syndrome, shin splints, or tennis elbow
Want to improve flexibility and range of motion as part of your training program
Play recreational sports on weekends and find that soreness lingers into the work week
Consider another modality if you...
Are looking for a relaxing, low-pressure session to de-stress after a long week (try Swedish)
Have no regular physical activity and your tension comes primarily from desk work or stress (deep tissue may be a better fit)
Have an acute injury that has not been evaluated by a medical professional (see a doctor first)
Are pregnant (prenatal massage is specifically designed for the needs of expecting mothers)
What a Sports Massage Session Looks Like
Athletic intake
Your therapist asks about your sport, training schedule, recent events, current soreness, and injury history. This is not a generic intake. If you ran a half-marathon two days ago, the session plan is completely different from a maintenance session during a rest week. Specificity matters.
Assessment and warm-up
Your therapist may test range of motion in key joints before starting. The session begins with broad strokes to increase blood flow to the target muscle groups. For runners, this means the posterior chain: calves, hamstrings, glutes, and lower back. For swimmers, the focus shifts to shoulders, lats, and thoracic spine.
Targeted sports work
This is where the session diverges from standard massage. Your therapist uses cross-fiber friction on tendons, PNF stretching to improve range of motion, compression to reduce adhesions, and trigger point release on overworked muscles. You may be asked to actively move during certain techniques. This is normal and makes the work more effective.
Stretching and mobility
The final portion includes assisted stretching specific to your sport. Runners get hamstring and hip flexor work. Lifters get shoulder and thoracic mobility. The therapist may teach you one or two stretches to do between sessions that target your specific patterns.
Recovery guidance
Your therapist checks in, gives hydration recommendations, and may suggest timing for your next session based on your training schedule. Post-event sessions typically recommend 48 hours of light activity before intense training resumes.
When Sports Massage Makes the Difference
Marathon Prep
You are eight weeks out from the LA Marathon. Your training volume is at its peak and your IT bands feel like steel cables. A biweekly sports massage during your taper keeps the tissue supple, addresses emerging tightness before it becomes injury, and arrives at your home so you are not adding more miles to your legs by driving to a spa.
The CrossFit Recovery
Monday was deadlifts. Wednesday was thrusters. Friday was a hero WOD. By Saturday your entire posterior chain is locked up and your grip strength is gone. A 90-minute sports massage at your home Saturday afternoon targets the exact muscle groups that CrossFit destroys: forearms, traps, glutes, and hamstrings.
The Weekend Soccer Player
Sunday league at Central Park in Saugus or Ed Davis Park in Canyon Country. Your calves are cramping by the fourth quarter and your knees ache for three days after. A post-game sports massage Sunday evening reduces the DOMS window from five days to two. You actually feel human by Tuesday.
The Competitive Swimmer
Daily laps at the pool have turned your shoulders into a mess of tight rotator cuff muscles and restricted thoracic mobility. Sports massage targets the subscapularis, infraspinatus, and teres minor with precision that foam rolling cannot replicate. Your stroke feels longer within days.
The Hiker
You hit Vasquez Rocks in Agua Dulce on Saturday and the trails at Placerita Canyon on Sunday. By Monday your quads are on fire and your Achilles tendons are tight. A sports massage Monday evening at your Acton or Agua Dulce home targets the downhill-specific muscles that trail hiking punishes.
Sports Massage Pricing
Three zones, transparent pricing. Every session includes table, oils, music & complimentary aromatherapy.
Please have your own sheets ready (twin size: 1 fitted, 1 top, 1 pillowcase).
Local Zone
Extended Zone
Where We Offer Sports Massage
We bring sports massage to homes, hotels, and offices across Southern California.
Sports Massage FAQ
Do I have to be an athlete to get sports massage?
No. Sports massage benefits anyone who is physically active. Gym-goers, hikers, recreational swimmers, weekend soccer players, and people who do physical labor all benefit from the recovery and mobility techniques used in sports massage. You do not need to be competitive or elite.
How much does sports massage cost?
Same pricing as all modalities. Local Zone: $120/60min, $170/90min, $240/120min. Extended Zone: $150/$200/$300. Premium Zone: $200/$250/$350. No upcharge for sports massage. No membership required.
Should I get sports massage before or after my event?
Both serve different purposes. Pre-event massage (ideally 24 to 48 hours before) is stimulating and increases blood flow to working muscles. Post-event massage (ideally within 24 to 72 hours after) is restorative and reduces inflammation and soreness. For ongoing training, maintenance sessions every one to two weeks keep tissue healthy between events.
How is sports massage different from deep tissue?
Sports massage is built around athletic activity. It includes stretching, active movement, and event-specific techniques in addition to deep pressure. Deep tissue focuses on breaking up chronic adhesions regardless of activity level. If you train regularly, sports massage is the better fit. If you have chronic tension from desk work, deep tissue may be more appropriate.
Will I be sore after a sports massage?
Some soreness is normal, especially after a session focused on areas with significant tension or adhesions. It typically lasts 24 to 48 hours and feels similar to post-workout soreness. Hydrating well and avoiding intense training for 24 hours after the session minimizes this.
Ready to book your sports massage?
Book online in under two minutes. Your therapist brings everything.
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