Book excerpt: The competitive athlete, whether amateur or professional, presents specific challenges to the massage therapist. To treat these individuals, the therapist should have a background in sport specific activities, be aware of the effects of training, and understand injury types and rehabilitation applications. This text describes patterns for sport activities (like running, throwing, impact, and repetitive use) and provides guidelines for applying massage to specific sports. Because athletes depend on highly coordinated neuromuscular activity, assessment and massage applications that address these physiologic mechanisms are covered in depth. - Comprehensive text covers all the essentials of sports and exercise massage making it the sole resource needed for massage therapists interested in specializing in sports massage. - 450 full-color illustrations accompany procedures, concepts and techniques to enhance understanding and comprehension of each topic. - Provides information for both assessment and management of connective tissue dysfunction. - Covers general nutrition for fitness, with material on supplements and banned substances for athletes. - Includes Autonomic Nervous System functions as well as fluid dynamics in circulation. - Each chapter contains chapter outlines, chapter objectives, key terms, summaries, practical applications, and workbook review questions, so the instructor can build lesson plans off of this pedagogy, and the student can comprehend the information more thoroughly by completing all of the exercises. - Included with the book is a DVD containing almost 2 hours of video showing the specific applications described in the book. - Case studies integrate information and touch upon the family and social support of athletes.