If you don’t want to book a massage in Islington right now, but you’re interested in learning more about sports and remedial massage, perhaps you’ll be interested in reading our FAQS page, or one of the many blog articles on how massage can help reduce pain and stress? Whether you’re studying for a sports massage course, looking for a sports massage job, or suffering from pain, injury or stress, we hope Islington massage specialists City Sports Massage can help!

It might seem like a dream come true for women of a certain age, but City Sport’s Becky is off on tour with Take That! – as their personal Deep Tissue and Remedial Sports Massage Therapist! Becky will be taking care of the lad’s aches and pains as they perform on a three month tour across Europe.

You can see occasional updates from Becky via our CSM Twitter.

But don’t worry, Becky’s Thursdays will be covered by Senior Therapist Fuchsia, so you will have an uninterrupted, fine-quality service!

Becky will be back performing massage in London at our Islington location in August…

Becky will be massaging Take That on their current 2011 European Tour. Although this picture is a few years old now, we are assured they are in just as fine a form.

However, relief for our busy team is here, and we are delighted to announce we have finally managed to find a brand new, up-and-coming star of the massage world!

Claire Lydon-Strutt – available Saturdays at London Bridge too!

Deep Tissue and Remedial Sports Massage therapist Claire will be working on Mondays and Fridays in Holborn, Saturdays at London Bridge, and Sundays in Highbury and Islington. Click on Claire‘s picture to view her profile!

City Sports Massage Therapist Claire

After more than 3 happy years at Natureworks we have decided to move just a few streets away to The Berkeley Clinic. It is a serene and peaceful clinic, located just 3 minutes walk from Marble arch tube, and very close to Oxford Street. Unusually for Central London there are even parking spaces outside! From 15th November I will be doing Mondays & Thursdays from 1pm-8pm, and Chris will be doing all-day sessions on Tuesdays, Wednesdays & Fridays 9am – 8pm. Come and check us out. It’s so posh!

You can of course still visit us at Natureworks until then!

Don’t forget we also have several other clinics in Central London – all of which are very close to tube stations, giving you an easy-to-reach service to fit into your busy schedule!

Look forward to seeing you there soon!

Hope the year has started splendidly well for you. We already have some exciting news!

Meet our new therapist Zoe!

As Ellie is now on Maternity leave we’ve been recruiting for a new therapist. When I met Zoe I wondered if she’d been sent to us from heaven! Why? She already has the ‘City Sports Massage’ touch. She’s an absolute natural. And strangely, she even looks a bit like Ellie!? Zoe flew through her interview process, and everyone loves her already. She’s at Natureworks on Tuesdays, Thursdays & Fridays, and at Snowsfields on Wednesdays.

Richard is currently covering Ellie’s Saturday spot at Natureworks.

Win a massage gift voucher for City Sports Massage, Vivien of Holloway, plus more!

Buy a £2 raffle ticket online and win vouchers for City Sports Massage & Vivien of Holloway. Get the chance to win an amazing massage courtesy of the City Sports Massage Team, or a whole £50 towards one of many of the glamorous 1950′s dresses made by style kitten, Vivien of Holloway! Plus, there’s LOADS more prizes!

ALL PROCEEDS GO TO ACTIONAID TO HELP THE PEOPLE OF HAITI!

Victimless Voodoo! – Help for Haiti night. Come along – if you dare!

Want a chance to get lost in some crazy, underground, voodoo rock ‘n roll cabaret this Sunday? There’ll be performers, music and drinking.

ALL PROCEEDS GO TO ACTIONAID TO HELP THE PEOPLE OF HAITI!

A reminder!

Just to remind you to book an appointment now, BEFORE you forget. When you get a massage *before* it hurts – it’s not only more effective, but it feels NICER!

All the best!

Jon and the City Sports Massage Team

At it’s most fundamental, massage therapy (and for that matter most bodywork) is about *manipulation* of the muscoskeletal system.

So far, so simple.

But historically, business people have tried to name, and define their brand. By naming their product, they are able to to market it – to sell it, and in the case of massage therapy, to teach it.

So every massage therapy has a different name, and, when you consider that every massage therapist has had a different a different training, and has different personal skill sets, it’s easy to see why you can find yourself both confused and disappointed when you go for a treatment.

It is worth noting that an experienced, developed, able therapist will allow these imaginary divisions to blur – as each person who requests a treatment has their own unique requirements. We at City Sports Massage constantly challenge our therapists during their in-house training, with perceptions of what constitutes ‘sports massage’.

To give you an idea of ‘definitions’, you can read an outline of our massage treatments here.

But please remember; what is essential to you receiving a good treatment, is that your therapist is *listening* to you, and has the skills and experience to communicate with your body.

It’s not really about the definition of the treatment, it’s about the definition of the relationship.

Alex wanted to see if he could get some help with his troublesome back pain – read on to find out what he discovered…

GET BACK – Alex Dalzell gets to the bottom of backache

The Problem

I used to shrug off the advice to always lift heavy objects with the legs as health and safety gone mad, another government guideline to avoid the small claims court. Until, that is, the day I bent down to lift up a crate of beer, all back and no knees, and a muscle in my lower back tore, sending me to the ground in screaming agony.

Ever since that day, my back hasn’t been the same, regularly throwing out spikes of pain and on a couple of occasions rendering me unable to do anything but lie flat for hours at a time. It seems I’m not alone, with four in five adults experiencing back pain at some point during their lives. More often than not, it’s difficult for a doctor to diagnose the exact cause of the injury because in many cases the pain starts a day or two after an injury occurs, or the cause has built up gradually over years rather than brought on by a single accident.

Many pains are caused by a strain or tear to the muscles, tendons or ligaments around the lower spine. Slouching in chairs, driving in hunched positions, standing badly, sleeping on a soft mattress and lifting incorrectly all have adverse effects on your back. But is there anything else you can do to help yourself?

The Salon

With the muscles in my back screaming out to be de-stressed I decided to try a professional deep tissue sports massage. After scouring the Internet for a reputable masseur close to where I worked in London, I came across the treatment centre City Sports Massage. Unlike most spas set in the basement of a glitzy luxury hotel, this small inner city treatment centre is based on the top two floors of a health food shop on a main road in Islington. First up, I sat down for a brief chat with my masseur Jon Gee, the senior masseur and owner, to run through my problem areas and allow him to lay down some ground rules: ‘If I’m causing you pain – shout; if I’m not causing you enough pain – shout.’ The next 15 minutes was aimed at making me relax every muscle in my back using deep breathing techniques.

Once my back was supple and workable, Jon started applying pressure on the lower back, either side of the spine and between the shoulder blades, explaining how all the muscles link up in a network and how tension in one area can cause pain in another. Throughout the massage, which was at times teeth-clenchingly painful, Jon explained what he was doing and before long I heard the squelching of the knots being broken down.

This massage threw my previous notions of relaxation out the window – gone were the candles and the scent of jasmine, and the masseur actually talked to me. For anyone who wants a lesson in how to look after your body, this is the one for you. www.citysportsmassage.com

Reprinted with kind permission of Alex Dalzell / Absolute Publishing. All text © Alex Dalzell 2009.

Our new rooms are within a brand new clinic called Snowsfields Wellness – a 5 or 6 minute walk from London Bridge station, and next door to Guy’s Hospital.

This means we now have a total of 6 therapists to choose from, working 7 days a week, at 3 different central locations. All within a few minutes walk of a major tube station. You can check the schedule here.

You’ll find all of our therapists are not *only* talented, they are all completely passionate about what they do, and they are lovely, caring people. They are all excited to be helping you as part of the City Sports Massage team, and of course, all share a fantastic sense of humour!

Everyone’s favourite Sunday specialist Becky Clarke is back at the Healthy Living Centre after being on maternity leave.

Becky’s thinking about taking on Saturdays too – so please feel free to encourage her ;-) She will be replacing Juan Carlos, who has moved to a quieter life in Nottingham with his Family. JC’s wife, Jackie, has been helping us out with admin this year and we’ll miss them both and wish them the best!

Our talented cover therapist, Biliana, is working Saturdays at HLC at the moment to help take care of your muscles whilst we continue to recruit and train new therapists. You’ll find out in the last section below how you can benefit from this process!

A New Clinic at London Bridge!

There is soon to be a third City Sports Massage location, within a few minutes walk of London Bridge. That’s right folks, *south* of the river. We feel very brave!

It’s close to the wonderful Borough Market and is ideally located for the entire Southern network of tubes and trains.

We’ll have some enthusiastic new therapists there to meet you and we’re just waiting for the owners to finish fitting the new therapy rooms – and they reckon mid October. Which, in ‘builder-speak’ could mean quite literally *anything*, but we’re remaining optimistic!

Continuing Professional Development!

I’ve been doing lots of anatomy dissection days this year, and recently did a whole six day course exploring the inner space of the human body. The course was run by Gil Hedley PhD, who normally teaches across the USA and is a very respected, forward-thinking academic. He first taught at a UK Medical School last year and this was only the second time the course has run in the UK . There’s only around 1500 people in the entire world who have ever had the chance to explore in this way.

It was an absolute privilege and an immensely enriching and powerful experience. It was very different to the anatomy books, and has massively deepened my understanding of the human form. I’m looking forward to passing this information on to our therapists and clients. I have come back with a series of DVDs which City Sports Massage will be watching as a team and discussing – and we aim to use this information to help you in your needs.

Free Massages via Facebook!

We are recruiting and training new therapists at the moment so we need our regular clients to give us feedback on how they’re doing – that means you could get yourself lined up for an afternoon of FREE MASSAGES. We are also running in-house workshops, so we need YOUR BODY to demonstrate and practice our popular techniques. There’s only one place you’ll find out about this – our Facebook fan page. It only takes Facebook users one click to join and it’s totally free.

It’s also the place where you’ll be kept up to date with the latest *relevant* news and other offers – so please don’t miss out!

That’s all for now, but you’ll be hearing from us soon – as we have lots more in the pipeline!

Best Wishes

Jon and the City Sports Massage Team.