If you run in this city you already know the routes. The seafront path from the Marina out to Hove Lagoon. The climb up to Stanmer Park. The South Downs Way if you've got the legs for it. And if you've been running any of them regularly, you probably also know the aches that come with the miles.

Tight calves that never quite loosen off. A dull ache on the outside of the knee that turns up around mile six and hangs around for the rest of the week. Heel pain first thing in the morning. That one hamstring that always feels shorter than the other one.

Most runners I see have been putting up with something like that for weeks before they book in. They've stretched it, foam rolled it, taken a few days off, and it keeps coming back. Sports massage in Brighton for runners isn't a luxury add-on after a good race. Used properly, it's one of the things that keeps you training instead of sitting out.

Here's what it actually does, what it helps with, when to book it around your training, and what happens when you turn up.

Why Runners Need Something Different From a General Massage

A relaxation massage and a sports massage are not the same treatment with a different name on the price list. They're doing different jobs.

Running is repetitive loading. Every stride sends impact up through the foot, the calf, the hamstring, the glute and the hip, thousands of times per run, in almost exactly the same pattern. That's fine, up to a point. It's what the body is built for. But over a training block, the tissue that takes that load gets progressively tighter and less elastic. Tight tissue doesn't absorb impact well. It passes it on to the next structure along, which is usually a joint or a tendon.

A general massage will feel lovely and will do very little about that. Sports massage goes after the specific structures that runners load: calves, soleus, hamstrings, glutes, hip flexors, quads, and the iliotibial band running down the outside of the thigh. It's deeper, it's slower, and it's targeted at the spots that are actually restricting you rather than the areas that simply feel nice to have worked on.

That's the bit worth understanding. Knee pain very often comes from tight hips and glutes. Heel pain very often comes from the calf. Shin pain very often comes from the same place. If a treatment only works where it hurts, you get an hour of relief and the problem comes straight back on your next run.

The Running Problems Sports Massage Helps With Most

These are the ones that come through my door most weeks.

1. 01 Shin splints (medial tibial stress syndrome)Pain along the inside edge of the shin, usually after upping mileage or switching to harder surfaces. The shins themselves are rarely the problem. Tight calves and restricted ankle movement are doing the damage, and that's where the work goes.
2. 02 IT band tightness and lateral knee painSharp or burning pain on the outside of the knee, worse on downhills and worse the longer you run. Hammering the IT band itself is uncomfortable and not particularly useful. Releasing the glutes, tensor fasciae latae and lateral quad is what actually changes it.
3. 03 Calf tightness and Achilles painExtremely common in anyone who's added hills, speed work or mileage quickly. Sustained work through gastrocnemius and soleus, plus mobility work at the ankle, usually makes a noticeable difference within a couple of sessions.
4. 04 Runner's knee (patellofemoral pain)Ache around or behind the kneecap, worse on stairs and after sitting. Usually a hip and glute issue in disguise. Quads, ITB and hip work tend to help more than anything done at the knee.
5. 05 Plantar fasciitisThat first-step-out-of-bed heel pain. The calf chain and the plantar fascia are directly connected, so releasing the calf and working into the foot arch together does more than treating the heel alone.
6. 06 Hamstring tightness and recurring nigglesOften not a hamstring problem at all but a pelvis and glute problem, with the hamstring taking up the slack and complaining about it. Worth getting properly assessed if the same one keeps flaring.
7. 07 Hip flexor tightnessEspecially in runners who also sit at a desk all day. Short hip flexors change your stride and load the lower back. This one responds well to hands-on work combined with a bit of daily mobility.

None of these get permanently fixed by massage on its own, and I'd be wary of anyone who tells you otherwise. What sports massage does is take the tension out of the system so the strength and mobility work you're doing has something to build on, and so your body handles training load better week to week.

When to Book It: Before a Race, After, or During Training

This is the question I get asked most, and the answer changes depending on what you're training for.

In the week before a race: lighter and shorter. The goal is to get the muscles moving well, not to dig into deep tissue and leave you sore. Three to five days out is usually the sweet spot. I'd avoid deep work in the final 48 hours before a big race, because you don't want to start on tender legs.

After a race or a long run: this is where deeper work earns its keep. Give it a day or two for the worst of the soreness to settle, then a proper session will help clear the tightness that's built up and get you back into normal training sooner.

When something's already niggling: book sooner rather than later. Nearly every runner who tells me "it's been like this since March" would have needed far less work if they'd come in during March. Small restrictions are quick to release. Six months of compensation takes a lot longer.

If you're building towards the Brighton Marathon or a spring half, the sensible pattern is to start maintenance sessions two or three months out, not in the taper week. By taper week the tissue changes you're trying to make take longer than the time you've got left.

What Actually Happens in a Session

If you've never had sports massage before, here's the honest version, because a lot of people put it off for longer than they need to.

We start by talking. What you're running, how much, how often, what's changed recently, and where it hurts or feels restricted. I'll ask about footwear, surfaces, whether you've upped mileage, and whether you're doing any strength work. That conversation usually tells me more about the cause than the first few minutes of hands-on work does.

Then I'll look at how you move. Ankle range, hip range, how the tissue feels through the calf and glute. Nothing complicated, and you keep your clothes on for that bit.

The treatment itself focuses on the running chain rather than working over your whole body evenly. Depending on what's going on I'll use deep tissue techniques, myofascial release, and where it's a good fit, IASTM or cupping along the IT band, glutes and calves. Cupping in particular works well on runners, because it decompresses tissue rather than compressing it, and it reaches fascia that hands alone struggle with.

It's firm. In genuinely restricted spots it can be uncomfortable. It should not be unbearable, and if it is, say so and I'll ease off. Pressure that has you holding your breath and bracing is counterproductive, because the muscle tightens against it.

You'll finish with a couple of specific things to do at home. Not a printed sheet of twenty exercises you'll never look at, just two or three that address what I found.

What Sports Massage Won't Do

Worth being straight about this, because there's a lot of overclaiming in my industry.

It won't fix a stress fracture, and if you've got sharp, localised bone pain that's worse with every step, you need imaging, not massage. It won't fix a problem caused by running 60 miles a week off the back of 15 the month before, because that's a training load issue and no amount of hands-on work outruns a bad plan. It won't replace strength work. If your glutes are weak, massage will keep buying you time but it won't build the strength that stops the problem returning.

It also isn't a one-off cure. A single session can absolutely take the edge off something, and sometimes that's all you need. But for a long-standing issue, expect two or three sessions before you're properly on top of it, plus the maintenance to keep it there.

If I think what you've got needs a physio, a podiatrist or a GP rather than me, I'll tell you. That's a more useful conversation than selling you a course of treatments that were never going to solve it.

Running in Brighton, and Why the Terrain Matters

Brighton throws up its own particular set of issues, and they show up in the treatment room.

The seafront is flat, hard and relentless. Great for pace, less kind to calves and shins over high mileage, because there's no variation in the loading at all. Runners who do most of their miles along the front tend to come in with tight calves and shin trouble.

The Downs are the opposite problem. Uneven ground, proper climbs and long descents. Trail and hill running here loads the glutes, quads and IT band far harder, especially on the way down. Runners coming off the Downs more often present with lateral knee pain and quad tightness.

Then there's the Brighton Marathon, which reliably fills my diary in the eight weeks beforehand with people who've discovered a problem too late in their build. Every year. If you're running it, the useful move is to get maintenance sessions in from January, not to book in a panic in March.

I'm based at my studio on Whitehawk Road in East Brighton, and I also do mobile sessions across Brighton and East Sussex, which suits people who'd rather not travel straight after a long run or a race.

Frequently Asked Questions