Massages
Remedial Massage Injury recovery, pain relief, posture correction Deep Tissue Massage Chronic muscle pain, stubborn knots Sports Massage Injury recovery, improving mobility Swedish Massage Stress reduction, relaxation, improved sleep Myofascial Release Massage Reducing restrictions from scar tissue Manual Lymphatic Drainage (MLD) Swelling reduction, boosting immune function About Me Zen Den Blog Online Booking
Whether you’re chasing a Worthing 10K PB, deep in marathon training, or your back’s gone after leg day — this is the page for you. Timing-led, assessment-based soft-tissue work to help you recover, move better, and stay ahead of the niggles that derail a training block. With Jan Bugar, Level 5 FHT-registered.
from £60 · 60 min
Written & reviewed by Jan Bugar Level 5 FHT-registered Sports & Remedial Therapist · About Jan → · LinkedIn ↗
Sports massage is soft-tissue work planned around your training and racing. The shape of any given session depends on where you are in your training cycle and what your body actually needs that day.
It isn’t only for elites. Most of my sports clients are amateur runners, club cyclists, weekend footballers, lifters, hikers, sea-swimmers and the occasional triathlete — plus “occupational athletes” like gardeners, postmen and tradespeople whose bodies take the same load whether they signed up for it or not.
What that looks like in practice: a session before a race is short, brisk and stimulating — never deep. A session three days after a hard effort is gentler and recovery-focused. A maintenance session in the middle of a training block can go firmer and into more detail. The choice gets made together, on the day, based on how your week has actually gone.
In short: sports massage is timing-led, not pressure-led. Deep tissue is one tool I use within it — not the whole service.
Great sports massage is about timing. What your body needs the week before a race is the opposite of what it needs the morning after one. Here’s how I plan treatment around your training cycle.
Race week, days before
A 60-minute session in the lead-up to a target event — typically 2 to 7 days out. Lighter and more stimulating than a maintenance session: effleurage, compression, broader strokes to tune the muscles you’re about to use rather than dig into them. Full appointment, lighter touch.
Goal: readiness, not deep change. Heavy work the day before a race can leave you flat — the deep stuff belongs further out from race day.
Within 72 hours of a hard effort
A session in the first three days after a race, long ride or hard training day. Gentler pace, easing soreness, supporting your return to easy training. 60 minutes is usually plenty here; 90 if specific areas took a real beating.
Goal: ease the worst of it, get you back to easy running, riding or training sooner.
Inside a training block, week to week
Where most amateur clients actually live. Regular sessions woven into your training — managing accumulated load, addressing risk areas before they become injuries, keeping tissue quality high. Often fortnightly or monthly.
Goal: stay ahead of niggles. This is where sports massage earns its keep.
Different sports load different tissues. Sessions get tailored to the actual demands of what you do — not a one-size-fits-all routine.
Runners
Calves, ITB, glutes, hamstrings, plantar fascia — the running injury catalogue. Sessions timed around long runs, speed work and race day.
Worthing parkrun, Striders, Harriers, Runfest 10K & Half, Brighton catchment.
Cyclists
Neck and upper back from the riding position, hip flexors and quads under load, low-back stiffness. Maintenance around your weekend miles and midweek efforts.
Worthing Excelsior CC, Thursday-night 10s, weekend club rides, Sussex sportives.
Triathletes & swimmers
Swimmer’s shoulder, hip and thoracic mobility, multi-discipline maintenance — balancing the swim/bike/run load across a week.
Worthing Triathlon, the sea-swimming community, multi-sport athletes.
Trail runners & hikers
Calves, Achilles and ITB work for the South Downs — chalky climbs, long descents, and the niggles that come with switching from road to off-road.
South Downs Way, Cissbury & Chanctonbury, trail-running and walking groups.
Team sports
Recovery from contact load, in-season maintenance for footballers, rugby players and racket-sport players — keeping you available week to week.
Worthing RFC, Worthing FC, local football and racket clubs.
Lifters & CrossFit
Posterior chain after deadlift sessions, shoulders and forearms from pulling/pressing work, glutes and quads after squat days. Recovery dialled to your training week.
Local gyms, CrossFit boxes, strength & conditioning programmes.
Every session follows the same simple structure — talk, assess, treat, plan. You’ll know what I’m doing and why, and you’ll leave with a clear sense of what comes next.
1Consultation
We talk through your training, your sport, your event calendar, any niggles or recent injuries. The plan flows from this.
2Assessment
Range-of-motion testing, a postural read, and palpation of the load-bearing areas for your sport. Quick, useful, not overdone.
3Treatment
I select techniques for the phase you’re in — soft-tissue release, MET, frictions, trigger-point work, broad work for warm-up sessions. Pressure is checked throughout.
4Aftercare
Simple self-care for between sessions, realistic timing for your next appointment, what to watch for. If something needs a physio or GP, I’ll say so.
Trained athletes can tell when they’re being sold something. Here’s what the research actually shows — the wins, the limits, and the things sports massage simply isn’t magic for.
The research, plainly
What worksWhat the evidence shows
Across the largest meta-analyses, massage produces small but real improvements in flexibility and delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS), with the biggest effects on soreness at 48–72 hours after a hard effort. It also reduces creatine kinase, a marker of muscle damage.
Sources: Guo et al., Frontiers in Physiology, 2017; Davis et al., BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine, 2020 (note: a 2021 correction is attached to this paper).
What worksWhat it does for your nervous system
Massage produces a measurable shift toward parasympathetic (“rest-and-digest”) activity in recovery — the same direction a good night’s sleep nudges you in. It’s the honest mechanism behind “I feel recovered.”
Source: post-exercise heart-rate-variability recovery research published in Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, 2022.
Be honestWhat the evidence does NOT show
Direct performance gains. The same large meta-analysis found no evidence that massage improves strength, jump, sprint, endurance or fatigue as a stand-alone intervention. Anyone selling sports massage as a performance booster is overselling.
Be honestRace week: lighter, not deeper
A review of pre-performance massage found that deep, sustained work applied close to an event can actually impair sprint performance and acutely reduce maximal strength. That’s why a session in race week is lighter and more stimulating than a maintenance session — the deep work belongs in your training block, well clear of race day.
Source: 2018 systematic review in the International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy.
MythThe lactic-acid myth
I won’t tell you massage “flushes out lactic acid.” The science says it doesn’t, lactate clears on its own within about an hour, and it isn’t the cause of next-day soreness anyway. One study even found post-exercise massage briefly impairs blood flow and lactate clearance.
Source: Wiltshire & Tschakovsky, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 2010.
Level 5 Sports & Remedial Therapist · Member of the Federation of Holistic Therapists · Worthing
I’m the only therapist at Zen Den Worthing — every appointment is with me, every time. I trained at Brighton Holistics through Level 3 Body Massage and Level 4 and 5 Sports Massage Therapy — the highest sports qualification the Federation of Holistic Therapists accredits in the UK.
I’ve worked with runners getting ready for races and recovering from them, club cyclists, weekend footballers, lifters, hikers and gardeners whose backs hate them — full-time, since 2021. The clinical training underpins the sport work: if something needs assessment, I’ll assess it; if it needs onward referral, I’ll say so plainly.
Two session lengths to choose from. The 60-minute is what most clients book — typically fortnightly or monthly.
Sports massage · 60 min
£60
The standard maintenance session
Book 60 minSports massage · 90 min
£80
Full assessment + targeted work
Book 90 minVouchers for the runner or cyclist in your life
Gift vouchers in any value, redeemable against any session or block.
Message me for a gift voucher →See full pricing for every treatment. FHT membership is recognised by some private health cash plans — always check your individual policy before booking, as cover varies.
Worthing has an unusually active community for its size — runners, cyclists, triathletes, sea-swimmers, hikers and team-sport players. Sessions get planned around the calendar you actually train and race on.
Running clubs & parkrun
Worthing Striders and Worthing Harriers AC are the two flagship running clubs in town, and the Worthing parkrun on Saturday mornings is the steady drumbeat of the running community.
Worthing Runfest & the Brighton catchment
The Worthing Runfest 10K and Half Marathon runs along the seafront in early May. Many Worthing runners also race the Brighton Half and the Brighton Marathon — sessions timed around your race week and recovery make a real difference.
Worthing Excelsior CC
Founded in 1887, around 100–150 members, Sunday club rides, an active Strava club, and a long-running Thursday-night series of evening 10-mile time trials. Cyclist-specific neck, low-back and hip-flexor work.
Worthing Triathlon & sea swimming
The annual Worthing Triathlon kicks off with a sea swim and finishes on the prom — plus an active year-round sea-swimming community. Swimmer’s shoulder and multi-sport maintenance, mapped to the calendar.
South Downs trail & hills
From the Three Forts Challenge to Cissbury Ring, Chanctonbury and the South Downs Way — the Downs are right behind us. Trail-specific calf, Achilles and ITB work for everyone running and walking on them.
Team sports & lifting
Worthing RFC, Worthing FC, plus the town’s gyms, CrossFit boxes and strength-training community. Contact-sport recovery and lifting-specific maintenance during a season or programme.
The calendar’s open two months ahead
Online booking shows two months of availability across six days a week. Easy to find a session that syncs with your training, race week and recovery — even when the event is weeks out.
5.0 from 66 Google reviews
“I’ve seen many sports massage therapists over 25 years — Jan ranks at the top. His deep tissue and sports work helped with pain relief and flexibility.”
— David M., Google review
“Brilliant treatment for sports recovery — I left feeling significantly looser. Will be back regularly.”
— East P., Google review
“Highly recommended. Skilled, kind, and you can tell he genuinely cares about getting you moving better.”
— Kaz E., Google review
No. The techniques apply to anyone with a body that takes load — runners and cyclists, yes, but also gardeners, builders, posties, parents lifting kids, and desk workers whose backs hate them by Friday. If your body works hard, sports-style soft-tissue work fits.
Sports is defined by timing — sessions planned around your training and event calendar. Deep tissue is one specific tool (sustained deep pressure for chronic knots). Remedial is assessment-led problem resolution for a specific injury or pain. Different jobs.
For a target race or event, your last deep session should be at least 5–7 days out. In race week, a lighter session 2–7 days before is fine; heavy work on tired legs the day before can leave you flat. For recovery, ideally within the first 72 hours.
For most amateur athletes, fortnightly or monthly during a normal training build. Closer to weekly if you’re peaking for a target event. Less is fine when training load is light. The 4-session Silver package is built around the fortnightly cadence.
It can be uncomfortable in places — especially on knotted tissue — but it shouldn’t be a battle. “Good discomfort” is fine; sharp pain isn’t. I check in near the start to make sure the pressure feels right for you, and if it’s ever too much during the session, one word from you and I’ll ease off.
Whatever you’re comfortable in. Most people are in underwear or close-fitting shorts under the towels; some prefer to keep more on. You’re covered with towels at all times and only the area being worked on is exposed.
If it’s within the first 48–72 hours of a fresh muscle or tendon injury, no — rest and ice first, and see a GP or physio if it’s significant. If it’s been days or weeks and isn’t resolving, message me first so we can pick the right modality — sometimes that’s sports, sometimes remedial.
20 Ainsdale Close, Worthing BN13 2QX — in Durrington, a few minutes from the seafront. Free on-street parking and an EV charger right outside. Bus routes 5, 9, 16 and 700 stop nearby.
Plan your race week and recovery now. Whether you’re building a base, peaking for an event, or coming back after a hard week — let’s get the timing right.
Further afield is welcome too — Brighton, Chichester, anywhere. Just drop me a message.