Is there a best time to have a sports massage? Is it better after a workout or before it?

Massage therapy – what are the benefits?

There are many types of massage and each has a different benefit.  The question of When to massage is also an important consideration. The effects of massage can include: an improvement in circulation and the promotion of healing; a reduction in swelling and congestion after exercise; tension relief in overtight and overused muscle; reduction in scar tissue following injury; enhanced flexibility and an improvement in wellbeing and confidence due to endorphine production and the ‘hands on effect’.

Massage, when is best, pre or post exercise?

Pre-exercise massage should focus on wellbeing to give the athlete a feeling of psychological confidence and a relaxed but ‘ready’ mental state. A short (not more than 15 minute) session should focus on light stretching massage strokes. Any deep tissue work immediately before sporting activity could cause soreness and muscle tightness and have a detrimental effect on performance. There is little research on the effects of pre-event massage, but some evidence has shown that massage prior to performing strenuous exercise improved perception of recovery (1). There is also anecdotal evidence that massage prior to exercise prepares the athlete mentally to function optimally.

The cause of post exercise muscle soreness is controversial.  It is generally not thought to be due to lactic acid and is more likely associated with raised blood levels of creatine kinase as a waste product of intensive muscular activity. Really acute muscle soreness generally only occurs with very intensive and unaccustomed exercise and the effect of training reduces this. Everyone has felt that acute soreness following the first game of tennis after a 9 month break…

In an experimental study by Kessler et al, massage techniques compared with just hand pressure were shown to have a better effect in reducing pain (2). Post exercise massage should aim to reduce inflammation and fatigue and return the body to normal flexibility as soon as possible and probably needs at least an hour to achieve this.

The timing of the post exercise massage and the duration of the massage is important. As a paper by Hilbert et al (3) showed, massage administered 2 hours after induced eccentric exercise did reduce the intensity of soreness 48 hours after muscle insult.  However, research by Hart et al (4) using massage for 5 minutes at 24, 48 and 72 hours after activity was not effective in reducing pain. The message here is clearly that massage needs to be administered as soon after intense exercise as possible and for at least 30 minutes to avoid the delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) that is so disabling and detrimental for training.

The massage can be deep, but not acutely painful, focusing on improving the circulation and venous and lymphatic drainage to remove the waste products of extreme exercise. The therapist should work on specific muscles such as the calf and hamstring for sprinters and jumpers and upper body muscles for throwers. Deep effleurage and cross fibre friction focusing on trigger points is acceptable in post exercise massage.

REFERENCES

1. Effects of massage on physiological restoration, perceived recovery, and repeated sports performance. B. Hemmings, M. Smith, J. Graydon, and R. Dyson. Be J Sports Med. Apr 2000; 34(2): 109-144

2. A study to compare the effects of massage and static touch on experimentally induced pain in healthy volunteers Jeff Kessler, Paul Marchant, Mark I. Johnson Physiotherapy – December 2006 (Vol. 92, Issue 4, Pages 225-232, DOI: 10.1016/j.physio.2006.02.007)

3. Effects of Sport Massage on Limb Girth and Discomfort Associated With Eccentric Exercise Joseph M Hart, C. Buz Swanik, and Ryan T Tierney J Athl Train. 2005 Jul-Sep; 40(3): 181–185.

4. Hilbert JE, Sforzo GA, Swensen T. The effects of massage on delayed onset muscle soreness. Br J Sports Med. 2003;37:72–75. [PMC free article] [PubMed]