Chapter 122 - 90: The Importance of Massage and Stretching

"How boring would it be to just read straight from the textbook?" Chen Jue walked into the classroom, a conspicuous, large bag on his back.

In the eyes of the student-athletes, such a large gym bag was nothing special.

Those who practiced sports like basketball, tennis, or badminton often carried similar large backpacks to class.

However, Chen Jue’s backpack was clearly a bit different. As he gently set it down, the shot put resting at the very bottom still made hard contact with the floor.

A muffled THUD attracted the attention of several students sitting nearby.

"Senior! It’s you again!"

"Don’t tell me you brought that gold brick again?" Ma Qiang asked, waggling his eyebrows at Chen Jue in greeting.

The previous class, with its calculations on the grip strength required to lift the gold brick, had been a real eye-opener for the freshmen in this physical education class.

Showing up again, Chen Jue was quickly becoming a celebrity in the class.

"No gold brick! I’d die of exhaustion carrying that thing around."

"This time I just brought a shot put. I plan to get some practice in after class," Chen Jue replied with a dismissive wave.

’I’ll definitely be auditing this class often in the future, so it’s essential to build a good relationship with the students.’

Besides, Chen Jue also planned to ask Ma Qiang some questions about Swimming. Among the many [Skills] he anticipated activating, Swimming was an absolute must, so he chatted with Ma Qiang a bit longer.

"Ma Qiang, I noticed the outdoor swimming pool in the northeast corner of campus isn’t open to the public. Where do you usually go to train?" Chen Jue asked, curious.

"Oh! Senior, the one you’re talking about is the open-air pool. It’s only open to the public during the summer."

"We usually train at the indoor swimming pool. It’s inside the large gymnasium right next to the outdoor one." Knowing Chen Jue was a new auditor, Ma Qiang gave him some extra details.

The two of them only stopped talking when the class bell rang.

But the teacher who walked in this time wasn’t the substitute, Teacher Sun, from the previous class. To everyone’s surprise, it was Li Rui—the man Chen Jue had met at the Morning Exercise Park!

It wasn’t just Chen Jue who was surprised; the student-athletes in the class erupted into loud cheers.

"Teacher Li Rui! We missed you like crazy!"

"Teacher Li, you’re finally back!"

"Finally, no more classes with Teacher Sun! Hooray!"

The students all seemed as if a great weight had been lifted, clearly worn down by the dull, by-the-book theory lessons.

Seeing how enthusiastic the class was, Li Rui raised his hands in a calming gesture, signaling for everyone to take it easy and not get so excited that they disrupted the class.

"My leave of absence was a bit long this time, so I must first apologize to all of you." Li Rui gave the students a slight bow, then scanned the classroom.

He didn’t expect to see his benefactor, Chen Jue, in the corner of the room. He gave him a nod and then officially began the class.

...

The sports massage course primarily covered the techniques and precautions for pre- and post-workout massages.

Instead of starting with dry textbook material, Li Rui played a video of a gold-medal weightlifter from the national team receiving a pre-training massage.

"As we can see, before God Lü begins his training, a professional massage therapist performs a comprehensive set of stretches on him."

"They start with overall compression and kneading of the back, then move on to opening the hips. Special attention is given to the iliopsoas and the tensor fasciae latae, followed by oscillatory stretching for the gluteus maximus and work on the lumbar and sacral spine. Then, they relax the muscle groups around the sternocleidomastoid. The final step is to adjust the atlanto-axial joint, which regulates the central nervous system and improves the body’s reflexes."

"The session then concludes by relaxing the superciliary arch and applying pressure to adjust both humeral heads."

"To perform such a comprehensive and professional stretching massage, a therapist must hold five major professional licenses: a license in bone-setting, a massage therapy certification, a physical therapy certification, a medical practitioner’s license, and a rehabilitation therapy certification."

"So, the bar for becoming a national team doctor or massage therapist is very high. The therapist in this video, for instance, has a large build, and both his technique and power are formidable. He’s one of the top massage therapists, selected from a nationwide pool."

"That’s because sports massage is the most professional form of manual therapy. It doesn’t use any equipment, so you must have enough Strength to stimulate the deepest layers of muscle and nerves."

After Li Rui finished explaining the massage techniques in the video, he called on a student who had their hand raised.

"Teacher Li, our school doesn’t have any top-tier massage therapists. So what are we supposed to do after our regular training sessions?" the student asked curiously, voicing the question on the mind of every athlete in the room.

Chen Jue, the auditor, was also listening intently. It was his first time hearing such a professional explanation of massage, and he was eager to hear Li Rui suggest a massage plan suitable for individuals.

"Until you become a top-tier athlete and establish your own rehabilitation team, if you want to get proper stretching and massages, aside from paying out of pocket for a professional therapist..."

"...you students can also try to learn massage yourselves or partner up with someone. You can supplement this with available massage tools, like fascia guns and fascia blades."

"However, you must be very careful when using these tools. With a fascia gun, for example, you can’t just apply force blindly, especially when massaging the lumbar spine. In the last physical education class I taught, a student overdid it with a fascia gun and ended up with edema in the subcutaneous soft tissue around their posterior superior iliac spine and sacroiliac joint."

Li Rui then opened his presentation slides and introduced a few professional-grade massage tools available on the market.

Especially when they saw the fascia blade, most of the students in the class let out groans of agony.