Hi, my name is Tim and I am a York Sports Massage Therapy practitioner. I am also the owner of Foxwood Personal Training. The three primary services that I offer are:
- Personal Training
- Sports Massage
- Online Running Coaching
I am also the proud owner of Egerton’s Garage Gym in York. Both my York Sports Massage Therapy service and Personal Training service take place in Egerton’s Garage Gym.
York Sports Massage Therapy
Foxwood Personal Training is located in Foxwood, York. All three primary services are delivered by myself, Tim Egerton. I am a former national champion middle distance runner and England international athlete. Additionally, I have a Masters Degree in Strength and Conditioning and an Advanced Diploma in Sports Therapy. With these qualifications, I bring 15 years experience as a Sports Massage Therapist. I have also worked with Olympic Athletes, World Champions, World Record Holders and Commonwealth Games Medallists.
I have a reputation for being able to provide a deep massage. My sports massage treatments provide sufficient pressure to meet the requirements of even the most well muscled of athletes. However, I will always check in with you. This means we can adjust the pressure to a level that is suitable for you.
My Background
Aged fourteen I was the no.1 ranked 1500m runner for my age in Britain. I had high hopes of progressing over the coming years. Instead, the biggest theme of the rest of my teenage years was injury after injury.
This seriously impacted my performance. In fact, the following will illustrate just how big of an impact injuries had on my running performance….
Prior to my record breaking season on the track, aged 14, I was also a top ranked cross country runner. In fact, I placed 5th in the UK Intercounties Cross Country Championships. But just over a year later and I had incurred a couple of injuries that had affected my ability to train consistently. As a result, I ended up finishing in 232nd position in the English Schools Cross Country Championships. A far cry from being a top five finisher at national level for cross country! If anything though, things continued to get worse. After a further year of injury struggles, I couldn’t even manage to qualify for the county schools team. I didn’t even get the opportunity to test myself at the National Championships.
These experiences were truly disheartening. However, they gave me a huge appreciation for the importance of consistency in training and therefore staying injury free. As a result, I wanted to learn as much as possible about strength and conditioning, sports massage and generally looking after the body to remain injury free. I studied at one of the top Universities in the country for sports science. I graduated from Cardiff Metropolitan University with a BSc (Hons) Sport and Exercise Science Degree in 2006. Then I qualified in Sports Massage as part of the Level Five Sports Therapy Diploma at the Active Health Group.
A New Era
I implemented what I was learning into my own training, and the results spoke for themselves!
On three occasions I was selected to run for my country. I won a national title (and four national championship medals in total at senior level). And I remained injury free for years in my twenties.
I also began to work with other high level athletes as a sports massage therapist.
Initially, I was based in Manchester. However, since the end of 2018 I have been based in York. Since then my York Sports Massage Therapy service has been exclusively based out of Egerton’s Garage Gym.
Egerton’s Garage Gym is my completely private personal training gym. It is only available for use by my private clients and is by appointment only. This means you can be sure your sports massage treatments are taking place in a clean, comfortable and private environment.
Egerton’s Garage Gym is located in Foxwood, less than three miles from the centre of York.
What is Sports Massage?
Massage can be thought of as the application of pressure to the body. This pressure can be applied using a variety of different techniques, depending on the desired outcome:
- Effleurage is a massage technique that involves long, gliding strokes. This is an effective technique for increasing the temperature of muscles in preparation for more vigorous massage techniques. This technique is also very effective at increasing blood circulation.
- Petrissage is a massage technique that involves kneading and squeezing. Petrissage is an effective technique for making muscle tissue more pliable in preparation for more vigorous massage techniques.
- Deep Strokes are a more vigorous massage technique that involves a high level of pressure to be applied along the same direction of the muscle fibres. Deep Strokes are an effective technique for lengthening muscle fibres. As such, Deep Strokes aid in maintaining or improving flexibility in massage clients.
- Transverse Strokes are similar to Deep Strokes, but are instead performed in a direction that is transverse to that of the muscle fibres. This technique allows muscle fibres to be stretched in a unique way that is difficult to achieve with conventional stretching methods.
- Friction is a massage technique that is used to spread and stretch soft tissue fibres at very specific locations. The magnitude of movement is very small when performing friction massage, but the magnitude of pressure is usually extremely high. Because of the sustained level of high pressure that is applied within a very small area, friction massage provides a local ischemic effect to the treated area, followed by a hyperaemia once the friction technique has stopped. This stimulates chemical changes within the treated soft tissue fibres. Friction massage is an effective technique for breaking down fibres and then realigning those fibres.
York Sports Massage Therapy Techniques
The above massage techniques are some of the most commonly used techniques used during Sports Massage. The more vigorous techniques, such as Deep Strokes, Transverse Strokes and Friction are typically used more prevalently during Sports Massage. In other types of massage, such as a relaxation massage, these vigorous techniques would not be used.
What can you expect from your Sports Massage Treatment?
Your Sports Massage treatment session will be 45 minutes in duration.
My first jobs are to find out what you want from your Sports Massage and to make sure you are comfortable.
Typically my clients are either runners who would like to have their legs massaged or they are office workers who would like to have their back and shoulders massaged in order to relieve tension. Some clients wish to have other areas massaged and other clients wish to have all of the above massaged. Once I have found out this information, my next job is to make sure you are comfortable. I can leave the room whilst you get changed and I can provide towels and heating to make sure you are at a comfortable temperature.
In terms of the massage itself, I do have a reputation for being able to provide a deep massage with sufficient pressure to meet the requirements of even the most well muscled of athletes. However, I will always check in with you so that we can adjust the pressure to a level that is suitable for you.
Does Sports Massage Therapy Hurt?
An effective Sports Massage will require intense levels of pressure. This is, in reality, a type of trauma that that you are subjecting your body to, much in the same way that a very hard training session is traumatic for the body. As such, it is common to be sore and for performance to be impaired for a day or so following a Sports Massage. Once these initial effects have subsided, the benefits of reduced muscle tension can take effect
The reality is, that it is unlikely a necessary level of pressure can be achieved without you feeling at least a little discomfort at times. This does not need to be excruciating pain. However, it is also important to manage expectations, and a sports massage will certainly be a different kind of experience to a ‘relaxing’ or ‘beauty’ massage.
What should I do after Sports Massage Therapy?
First things first. Stay hydrated and make sure you drink plenty of water.
Beyond this, you can train following a sports massage if you wish. However, it makes more sense to train before your sports massage rather than after it. If you are training after your sports massage then it should be relatively low intensity training.
When should I have a Sports Massage?
Physical performance, particularly in power based activities, will be compromised immediately following a Sports Massage. Realistically, we should expect performance to be at least somewhat impaired for 24 hours following a Sports Massage. Therefore, you should try and schedule your Sports Massage appointment for a time when you have a minimum of 24 hours before your next intense training session. Low and moderate intensity training sessions can be performed in closer proximity to your Sports Massage. The key consideration is timing your massage in relation to your next high intensity training session.
Who should get a Sports Massage?
Clearly the target market for Sports Massage is athletes. However, almost anyone can benefit from relieving tension through having a Sports Massage. Office workers, in particular, can benefit. A good Sports Massage can help to undo the build up in tension in the upper back that results from spending hours at the computer.
Why have Sports Massage?
Whilst there many benefits to be gained from Sports Massage, such as improved flexibility and improved circulation; most of those benefits can be achieved through alternative modalities. For example, we can improve flexibility through stretching and we can improve circulation through hot and cold contrast baths.
With hard training, it is inevitable that muscle tension will build up over time. For short periods of time, this tends not to impact upon performance and recovery. However, if this muscle tension is allowed to build up over longer periods of time, then it will begin to have a negative impact. The key benefit of sports massage is that it is able to alleviate this muscle tension in a way that other modalities are not able to.
Research on Sports Massage
There is a wealth of scientific research on Sports Massage.
In the interests of transparency, much of the research does not show Sports Massage to have significant effects. However, it is important to realise this is heavily dependent on the outcomes being investigated in relation to Sports Massage. For example, much research has been conducted to suggest that Sports Massage has no significant effect on the recovery of strength following hard strength training (Davis et al., 2021). With regard to the recovery of endurance performance following a maximal bout of exercise, Sports Massage appears to have mixed results (Davis et al., 2021).
With regard to the reduction of DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) following strenuous exercise; although there are mixed results within the research literature, the overall evidence would suggest that massage is effective in reducing the amount of DOMS experienced (Davis et al., 2021).
There are areas of research that show a clear benefit to Sports Massage. In particular, there is a clear body of evidence to show the benefits of massage in improving flexibility.
Massage has been shown to significantly improve Hamstring flexibility (Hopper et al., 2005; Hopper et al., 2004; Huang et al., 2010). Ankle joint flexibility has also been shown to significantly increase following massage treatment (McKechnie et al., 2007).
There are also some less obvious benefits to massage therapy. For example, weekly massage sessions have been shown to reduce migraine frequency and improve sleep quality (Lawler & Cameron, 2006). In fact, I have a couple of regular Sports Massage clients that report improvements in their migraines as a result of their massage treatments.
Muscle Tone
Muscle Tone (stiffness, compliance, hardness) is defined as the interaction between muscle viscoelastic properties, structures and neural regulations (Almaki et al.., 2007).
Resting Muscle Tone is defined as the elastic and/or viscoelastic stiffness in the absence of contractile activity (Simons & Mensa, 1998).
A simple, albeit crude, way of assessing muscle tone is by pressing the fingers manually against a muscle to register the force or effort needed to displace it. There are, of course more technologically advanced methods for measuring muscle tone. However, illustrating this simple method is useful in order to help provide an understanding of how Muscle Tone differs from flexibility. Many practitioners like to make a distinction between muscle length (or flexibility) and muscle quality. However, it is often unclear as to what is meant by muscle quality. Muscle Tone is a good example of what may be meant by muscle quality.
There are a variety of reasons why there may be Muscle Tone or Muscle Tension present even at rest. These reasons include:
- Cross-bridges between Actin and Myosin protein filaments
- Properties of other muscle proteins (eg. Titin)
- Intracellular / extracellular water pressure
- Active Fascia contractility
Sports Massage Therapy and Muscle Tone
There is evidence of a chronic increase in muscle tone in individuals complaining of overtraining (Vain, 2002), in individuals with chronic conditions such as compartment syndrome (Karhonen et al., 2005) and in individuals with chronic pain in the Trapezius muscle group (Vain, 2007).
There is also evidence that muscle tone can be altered through manipulating water intake.
So, clearly Muscle Tone is something that we may be able to adjust through suitable interventions. Additionally, being able to appropriately manage muscle tone is clearly of benefit with respect to injury prevention and sports performance enhancement. The question is, exactly how do we do this?
Research on overtrained athletes suggests that massage done in the opposite direction to the muscle fibre direction can improve recovery from overtraining (Hogseth et al., 2005). Given that we have already established a link between overtraining and increased muscle tone; it seems likely that the mechanism by which massage treatment is able to improve recovery from overtraining is by decreasing muscle tone.
In addition to the above clinical evidence, we also know anecdotally that famous sprint coaches, such as Charlie Francis, have used sports massage treatments on Olympic Sprinters for the express purpose of achieving the correct level of muscle tone on the day of competition.
So, as with many areas of Sports Massage Therapy research, much further study is still needed. However, there is sufficient research evidence available to suggest that Sports Massage is a useful tool for managing muscle tone in athletes following or during hard blocks of training.
So, whether it be improving flexibility, optimising muscle tone, reducing migraines, enhancing recovery or decreasing muscle soreness; there are many benefits to a regular Sports Massage.
Book a Sports Massage
If you would like to book in for a Sports Massage, here are the key details you need to know:
Price – £35
Duration – 45 Minutes
Location – Egerton’s Garage Gym, Foxwood, York
In order to book in, please get in touch by filling out the contact form HERE.
To stay in touch, and find out more about York Sports Massage Therapy, you can also follow us on Instagram: