How Massage Heals Sore Muscles. Barbara P. Fernandez for The New York TimesResearchers are learning how massage soothes aching muscles. A massage after vigorous exercise unquestionably feels good, and it seems to reduce pain and help muscles recover. Many people — both athletes and health professionals – have long contended it eases inflammation, improves blood flow and reduces muscle tightness. But until now no one has understood why massage has this apparently beneficial effect. Now researchers have found what happens to muscles when a masseur goes to work on them. Their experiment required having people exercise to exhaustion and undergo five incisions in their legs in order to obtain muscle tissue for analysis. Despite the hurdles, the scientists still managed to find 11 brave young male volunteers.
On a first visit, they biopsied one leg of each subject at rest. Vigorous exercise causes tiny tears in muscle fibers, leading to an immune reaction — inflammation — as the body gets to work repairing the injured cells. Thailand Breaks Mass-Massage World Record. Growing Body Of Research Shows Massage Therapy Effective For Prevalent Health Conditions. News & Research in Bodywork. Bleakley C, McDonough S, MacAuley D. The use of ice in the treatment of acute soft-tissue injury: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials. Am J Sport Med. 2004; 32:251-261. What is the clinical evidence base for cryotherapy use? Studies were identified by using a computer-based literature search on a total of 8 databases: MEDLINE, Proquest, ISI Web of Science, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health (CINAHL) on Ovid, Allied and Complementary Medicine Database (AMED) on Ovid, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Cochrane Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effectiveness, and Cochrane Controlled Trials Register (Central).
The study population, interventions, outcomes, follow-up, and reported results of the assessed trials were extracted and tabulated. Specific search criteria identified 55 articles for review, of which 22 were eligible randomized, controlled clinical trials. Based on the available evidence, cryotherapy seems to be effective in decreasing pain. Massage can have significant benefit for muscle pain and other ills, studies find. “We have enough data to say the evidence is there that this really does help with back pain in particular,” confirms physician Josephine Briggs, director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health.
She alsocites a study published this year in the online journal PLoS One that found that patients with osteoarthritis of the knee who got a weekly 60-minute Swedish massage — a popular, gentle type of bodywork that may include kneading, pressing or stroking the muscles — experienced significant pain reduction and improved function compared with those who received standard care with no bodywork; the gains persisted even after treatment ended. One of the most popular complementary and alternative therapies in the United States, massage can be especially advantageous for avid exercisers, says licensed massage therapist Rebekah Owens, an instructor at the Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.