Sports & Exercise Massage

Sports & Exercise Massage

Are you ready to take your massage therapy skills to the next level and work more effectively with athletes and active clients? This course, based on Sports & Exercise Massage by Sandy Fritz, provides the essential knowledge and hands-on techniques needed to optimize performance, prevent injuries, and speed up recovery.

Why Take This Course?

Sports massage is more than just deep tissue work it's a strategic approach to enhancing athletic performance and reducing recovery time. Whether you work with professional athletes or weekend warriors, this course will help you develop targeted skills to support clients at every stage of training and competition.

What You'll Learn

• The principles and benefits of sports massage in athletic performance and recovery.
• Pre-event, post-event, and maintenance massage techniques.
• How to assess and address common sports-related injuries and muscle imbalances.
• Effective stretching and mobility techniques to enhance flexibility.
• How to integrate sports massage into your existing practice for maximum client benefit.

Who Should Enroll?

This course is ideal for licensed massage therapists and bodyworkers looking to expand their expertise in sports massage. Whether you want to work with athletes, active clients, or anyone recovering from physical activity, this course provides the tools and techniques to enhance your practice.

Continuing education is essential for professional growth. By completing this course, you'll not only earn valuable CEUs but also gain specialized knowledge that sets you apart in the industry.

Course Details

Enrollment Options

Testing: You take your test online, and immediately upon passing, print your certificate.

Approvals & State Acceptance

The Institute of Somatic Therapy is approved by the NCBTMB (Provider #280672-00) as a continuing education Approved Provider, and is also approved by Florida (#MCE-326) and New York (#0019). Our courses are also valid for AMTA, ABMP, and most individual states. Some states limit how many hours can be completed online or by home study. Please refer to our State Guidelines section for specific information about your state. Laws can and do change, and your state will hold you responsible for knowing the laws that apply to you.

CE Broker Reporting

The Institute of Somatic Therapy will automatically report your hours to CE Broker in applicable states only if you have provided your license number in your online account with us.

Course Description

One of the most popular and widely utilized applications of massage therapy comes from athletics. Whether your client is an occasional weekend warrior or a seasoned triathlete, this course is full of techniques to ease aches and pains and help enhance sports performance. You will study the theory and application of sports massage, plus sports injuries and dysfunction, both in general and by specific body part.

About the Textbook

Sports & Exercise Massage: Comprehensive Care in Athletics, Fitness, & Rehabilitation, 2nd Edition by Sandy Fritz provides guidelines for applying massage to amateur and professional athletes. It addresses the challenges of treating clients involved in sports, physical fitness, rehabilitation, and exercise. In-depth coverage describes common movement patterns for activities such as running and throwing, and applies massage principles to assessment techniques, indications, contraindications, and outcome goals.

This edition includes a new chapter on stretching, hundreds of full-color photos of techniques, and an Evolve companion website with step-by-step videos demonstrating sports massage applications.

Key features include:

• Comprehensive coverage of sports and exercise massage in one resource, including theories of sports, fitness, and rehabilitation; anatomy and physiology review; basic nutrition for fitness; massage methods; and detailed descriptions of therapeutic techniques such as lymph drainage, care of acute injury, connective and deep tissue applications, and pain management.
• Discussion of common categories of athletic injury: sprains, strains, wounds, contusions, joint injuries, and more.
• More than 600 full-color illustrations show procedures, concepts, and techniques.
• Student-friendly features include chapter outlines, learning objectives, key terms, summaries, review questions, a glossary, and "In My Experience" boxes highlighting real-life situations.
• Case studies to develop clinical reasoning skills.
• Evolve companion website with technique videos, a stretching atlas, a general massage protocol, and additional case studies.
• Written by Sandy Fritz, who provides massage for professional athletes across many sports and whose school, the Health Enrichment Center, had a 13-year partnership with the Detroit Lions.

Table of Contents

Unit One: Theory and Application of Exercise and Athletic Performance

1. The World of Sports and Exercise Massage
2. What Is Sports Massage?
3. Evidence for Sports Massage Benefit
4. Kinesiology
5. Fitness First
6. Sport-Specific Movement
7. Nutritional Support and Banned Substances
8. Influences of the Mind and Body

Unit Two: Sports Massage - Theory and Application

9. Indications and Cautions
10. Assessment for Sports Massage and Physical Rehabilitation Application
11. Review of Massage Methods
12. Stretching (new chapter)
13. Focused Massage Application
14. Unique Circumstances and Adjunct Therapies

Unit Three: Sport Injury

15. Injury in General
16. Pain Management
17. Common Categories of Injury
18. Medical Treatment for Injury
19. Systemic Illness and Disorders
20. Injury by Area

Unit Four: Case Studies

21. Case Studies

Notice to International Students

While we are willing to ship courses to any location in the world, we cannot guarantee delivery, as international shipping is outside the control of USPS and may not qualify for delivery insurance. Orders placed to international addresses are made at the student's risk. We will not issue refunds on international orders when we can provide proof of shipment.

If your package is lost in transit, it will be your responsibility to file a claim with the delivery carrier in your country. By ordering any physical items from our website for shipment outside the USA, you are agreeing to these terms.

We also cannot guarantee that any publisher online access materials that may accompany some textbooks will be compatible with international systems, which may use different technology standards than those used in the USA. We encourage international students to use our online course options.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the study guide that comes with the course?
The course study guide is a copy of the questions you will find on the online exam. As you study the course materials, you can fill in the answers on the guide to reference when you complete the online exam. We do not provide page numbers where answers can be found, because we want you to study the entire course rather than locate individual answers. Because the study guide contains the actual test questions, we do not provide an answer key. You will receive your grade when you complete the online exam.

Do you report course completions to the NCBTMB, ABMP, or AMTA?
None of these agencies have a method for us to report to them on your behalf. They prefer that you provide evidence of your CEs as detailed in their individual renewal processes. We do report to CE Broker, as noted above, if you have provided a license number for a state that uses CE Broker for reporting purposes.

To contact the Institute of Somatic Therapy about this or any other massage therapy CEU course, please use the Contact link above.