Local Cyclists Get Pain Relief From Massage Therapy

Information courtesy of Body Sage

Massage has long been known to help athletes recover from hard training and racing, and to help ward of overuse injuries. For athletes in particular, massage helps reduce the inflammation response from training and actually stimulates mitochondria to begin repairing the tiny tears in muscles fibers that hard training and exertion create. Along with the added benefit of some downtime for relaxing while on the massage table.

Body Sage Massage Therapy owner Karen Potter is also a professional mountain bike racer, with more years of experience racing her bike than her 9 years as a massage therapist. She credits being involved in high level sports as part of her motivation to become a massage therapist.

“I have always been into health and nutrition and very active," she said. "The thought of helping others for my job was very appealing.”

As an athlete herself, Potter really understands the value of massage and bodywork. She has worked through various chronic overuse injuries by the constant physical demands on her body as well as from the many crashes out on the trails. Before her focus on ultra endurance mountain bike racing (50-100 mile races) she herself had to work through some painful chronic knee and hip pain that plagued her performance.

She found help through massage work and also getting bodywork done at Biosynchronistics - Quality Physical Therapy in Sturbridge. The Biosynchronistics work is fascinating in that it works on the fascia with a fairly light touch but is still really effective. Fascia is a connective tissue that wraps around just about every muscle, organ, fiber, etc in the body and can get bound down as the body compensates for injuries, various impacts to the body or chronic daily patterns of poor posture. As noted, the fascia responds to a light touch and to being brought further into the restricted area, much like a sticky dresser drawer that you have to push back in at the right angle in order for it to align properly and come out smoothly.

Potter has trained in this work as well and has found the combination of massage and Biosynchronistics work the most effective for working out pain and various overuse injuries for her clients.

She works with several cyclists from the recreational rider to fellow racers. Over the winter, she has been working with Philip Schoenig of Grafton, who is preparing for a Ride Across America to raise awareness and funds for the Wounded Warrior Project.

Schoenig comes in after he completes massive training blocks of back to back 6 to 7 hour training rides to help him recover and continue prepping for his upcoming journey in April. Other cyclists Potter has worked with have focused on overuse injuries and really getting the body aligned and healthy to keep riding.

While Potter works with several athletes, massage is truly effective just about everyone and she has varied clientele that she works with. Body Sage Massage Therapy is located at 543 Main St., Shrewsbury.