Friday Night Lights, Saturday Massage: Recovering After the Big Game

There are certain signs that fall has arrived in Texas.

The temperatures may still insist it’s summer. The calendar may technically agree. But once the stadium lights come on Friday night, the marching band starts playing Seven Nation Army, and half the town is wearing school colors, we know better.

Football season is here.

In Decatur and communities throughout Wise County, Friday night football is more than a game. It’s a tradition. Players have spent months preparing. Coaches have spent countless hours planning. The band has been rehearsing. Cheerleaders and drill teams have been practicing. Parents have been driving everyone everywhere.

And the rest of us?

We’ve been preparing to spend Friday night yelling ourselves hoarse from the bleachers.

By Saturday morning, there can be quite a few sore bodies around town, and not all of them wore shoulder pads the night before.

Friday Night Can Take a Toll

For the athletes on the field, the physical demands are obvious. Running, cutting, tackling, blocking and repeated explosive movements can leave muscles tired and tight after a game.

But football players aren’t the only ones working on Friday nights.

Marching band members carry instruments while performing precise movements for hours. Cheerleaders jump, tumble and perform electrifying stunts. Coaches spend practices and games on their feet. Even spectators can discover Saturday morning that three hours on stadium bleachers isn't exactly a pleasant or ergonomic experience.

And then there are the parents who have spent the entire week getting everybody where they needed to be before finally making it to kickoff themselves.

Your team may have won Friday night.

Your shoulders don't necessarily care.

Win or Lose, Saturday Is for Recovery

A good massage doesn't have to wait until something hurts badly enough to interfere with your life.

Massage therapy can help ease muscular tension, promote relaxation and give tired bodies some much-needed recovery time after a demanding week. Depending on needs, some clients want deeper, focused work while others need an hour to relax and decompress. At Massage Refresh, each session is customized to the person on the table. We might focus on tired legs, a stiff lower back, tight shoulders and neck, or simply the accumulated tension that comes from another busy week.

Massage and Athletic Recovery

For athletes, massage can also be a useful part of an overall recovery routine.

Sports massage isn't about trying to erase every ache immediately after strenuous activity. It's about working intelligently with the body, addressing muscular tension, supporting mobility, and helping an athlete prepare for the physical demands ahead.

And football season is a looooonnnnng season.

One game leads to another practice week, which leads to another Friday night under the lights. Recovery between those demands matters.

I've written before about the role massage therapy can play in athletic performance and recovery, including my experience working with a high school football player. See: Massage Therapy Isn't Just for Recovery, It's Becoming Part of Athletic Performance.

And What About the Rest of Us?

The cheering or jeering people in the stands didn't score a touchdown, perform flip after flip along the sidelines, carry a twenty pound tuba up and down the field.

But you don't have to do any of those things to earn a massage.

Maybe you spent Friday night standing for every exciting play. Perhaps your back didn't particularly enjoy those stiff aluminum bleachers. Maybe you carried a sleeping toddler halfway across the parking lot. You might have spent the week at a desk, in a classroom, on a job site or behind the wheel. (These Texas local games sometimes aren't so local.)

Friday night was merely the finishing touch.

Massage isn't reserved for athletes.

Sometimes life itself is the contact sport.

Friday Night Belongs to Football. Saturday Can Belong to You.

One reason I keep Saturday appointments available at Massage Refresh is because weekends can be the first opportunity many people have to take care of themselves.

So whether you're celebrating Friday night's victory, recovering from the agony of defeat, or couldn't tell a first down from a touchdown and just know your neck hurts, you're welcome here.

Massage Refresh offers customized massage therapy in Decatur, Texas, including relaxation, deep tissue, sports and rehabilitative massage, prenatal massage with additional services such as cupping and Manual Lymphatic Drainage available when appropriate.

Ready for some Saturday recovery? Our extended fall Saturday hours is 10-4.

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