Momentum Relief

Lyttelton area

The Benefits of Sports Massage (For Everyone):

​While athletes often rely on sports massage for muscle recovery, mobility issues or injury rehabilitation, you don't need to be an athlete to reap the benefits. A sports massage is highly versatile. It is highly beneficial for just about everyone, regardless of your lifestyle or fitness level.

​Let's take an Office Worker as an example: Most office workers spend their days sitting at a desk, a sports massage can be an effective way to relieve a lingering back pain and shoulder tension caused by long hours of sitting.

If this sound familiar to you, book a session and let us treat the problem alongside rehabilitation techniques.

Hi Athletes,

As the winter sports season kicks off with a bang (soccer, rugby, hockey, netball) and the runners among us prepare fervently for their Comrades 2026 adventures, I would like to join your journey and support you with specialised, targeted sports massage therapy and strapping.

Benefits include:
injury prevention, maximized performance, optimized recovery.

Contact me for a free telephonic consultation.

Marleen
082 3111 346

Kliënt terugvoering.

While massage guns offer convenience, they are mechanical "hammers" that lack the nuance required for the neck's complex anatomy. Professional sports or remedial massage is superior because it prioritizes safety and targeted recovery over raw force. ​The neck is a "high-traffic" zone for vital structures—carotid arteries, vertebral arteries, and delicate nerve bundles—that are poorly protected by thin muscle layers.
​The Problem with Machines: A massage gun provides high-frequency, percussive force. If it hits an artery or a bony prominence (like a vertebra), it can cause a tear in the vessel wall (dissection) or dislodge a clot, leading to a stroke.
​The Professional Advantage: A therapist uses palpation (the sense of touch) to identify exactly where muscle ends and vulnerable structures begin. They can feel the pulse of an artery and navigate around it, something a machine cannot do.

Self-care often leads us down dark alleys, ones in which we might best avoid. Using a massage gun is a pleasant and helpful experience for some, but caution must be at the forefront. Using one of these tools on the front and sides of the neck carries risk, as seen by the studies listed below. Deep, aggressive massage and manual therapy are seen as a necessary process to rid oneself of problems, but there are limits we need to set. Educate yourself to avoid irreparable injury.

Please consider sharing this post with others who may benefit from this information.

Sulkowski, K., Grant, G., & Brodie, T. (2022). Case report: vertebral artery dissection after use of handheld massage gun. Clinical practice and cases in emergency medicine, 6(2), 159.

Pruthi, A., Santucci, J., Rajagopalan, S., Schumacher, H. C., & Tonetti, D. A. (2025). Embolic stroke associated with handheld electric neck massager: A case report and literature review. Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases, 34(1).

Pan, J., Wang, J. W., Cai, X. F., Lu, K. F., Wang, Z. Z., & Guo, S. Y. (2023). Intracranial large artery embolism due to carotid thrombosis caused by a neck massager: A case report. World Journal of Clinical Cases, 11(11), 2489.

Shariff, E., Al Ghannam, Z. T., AlDamigh, F. A., AlGhamdi, A. G., AlEisawi, Y. M., Aloqalaa, K. F., ... & Salloot, B. (2023). Home self-massage device necessitates public awareness: vertebral artery dissection associated with a home massage device. Cureus, 15(1).

Click on image to read Client reference for the Sports Massage. I am a personal trainer as well over at Marleen's Personal training

Sports massages aren't painful all the time. A sports massage can be something where I only flush your muscles and lymph nodes from toxins that occur after training or every day stress. This type of massage is light and relaxing.

You have a choice between the last mentioned OR;
A formal assessment done and then when I do get muscle knots or problem areas, I will work on them.