Are you an athlete in the St. Petersburg Florida or the Tampa Bay area, or willing to travel to the Saint Petersburg area in order to perform in your sport better, recover faster, and feel better?  We can help with sports massage, stretching, hot and cold therapy, ultrasound, and proper planning for recovery.  Prevention of injury is a primary concern of ours.  Good recovery will help you toward your goal of remaining  injury free. 

The texture of your tissue can be a primary warning sign of trouble.  It can also let you know when your body is ready for a good performance.  Our palpation skills are highly developed to feel the difference. 

Timing of the hands on contact is the key for successful sports massage.  Too deep or too long just prior to an event can retard performance.  Post event should be designed to relax and enhance recovery. Each person will have a different set point for the stretch reflex to activate. Massage that is too deep will activate it.  Working too deeply can cause muscle injury, so respect the stretch reflex and enhance recovery not retard it.

Sometimes an injury occurs in spite of all the preventative measures that were taken. Working with injuries requires a therapist who has had extensive experience working with injuries and a track record of helping patients recover from  those injuries. Be careful in choosing an oil spreader just out of massage school! 

Sometimes injuries require the assistance and guidance of a Medical Doctor.  A good therapist knows when to refer out. Good assessment skill should include the ability to administer good orthopedic screening tests, as well. 

Should you seek help from  massage school teachers?    Some teachers of sports massage programs are good at teaching, but not so good at helping real patients recover.  One reason that this may be is that some of them have not had much actual experience working with real athletes with real problems.

Another potential problem is working with beginning sports massage therapists who do not have the years of  experience that are needed to deal with injuries. Take their advice with caution. Check the license number of the person who is working on you.  Higher numbers  indicate the person may have only been recently licensed.  Some Florida numbers are over 50,000! 

Vicki Harwick and Travis Skaggs excel in all categories of successful sports massage therapists. We have been doing long hours of massage six days a week for more than 17 years.  Numerous world class professional athletes trust their bodies with our therapy.  Why Trust your Body to anyone else?