| Massage Helps Workout Recovery on a Cellular Level |
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| Written by Lia Suzuki |
Some of you professional massage therapists may have heard about the study done recently using rabbits to test how massage can benefit post-workout recovery. There's a really good article summarizing the study by Cynthia Billhartz Gregorian. She leaves behind the dry, sterile writing style used in most scientific articles and instead, opts for a light approach to the subject, while still giving us all the facts in a straight-forward way. "...And a bunch of sedated rabbits in Ohio recently had massage performed on their legs after bouts of intense exercise."It seems that now instead of just asking our clients to take our word that massage will aid in workout recovery, we actually have some clinical evidence to point them towards. According to Gregorian, some researchers at Ohio State University recently published their findings in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. The rabbits were exercised intensely, using a mechanical device. "In the study, researchers used a mechanical device to create a motion similar to the way quadriceps in human thighs move when running downhill."Some of the rabbits received massage sessions after the workout (Hmph.) and others didn't, relying simply on rest for their recovery. The results showed clearly that massage indeed helped speed muscle recovery at the cellular level: "Scientists found that the muscles of the massaged rabbits had improved function, less swelling and fewer signs of inflammation than did muscles in non-massaged rabbits." Gregorian also quotes various massage professionals including Cynthia Riberio, vice president of the American Massage Therapy Association. Riberio explains how massage can benefit athletes in all phases of their training: pre-event, during the event, and post-event.
The article also quotes Ethel Frese, a professor of physical therapy at St. Louis University and a cardiovascular and pulmonary specialist. Frese talks about lactic acid. It was interesting to me that she takes the traditional outlook on lactic acid - that the presence of it in the muscles is what causes the pain we feel after a workout. It made me wonder if she has seen the more recent evidence floating around the web (see Re-examining the Role of Lactic Acid and Lactic Acid Will Be Sorely Missed, stating that new research has been done which perhaps contradicts the notion of lactic acid as causing pain, showing that it perhaps aids in recovery and is not the actual cause of the pain.
Frese does however, mention something often overlooked in discussions on massage and recovery, which is massage-enduced endorphin release. "Frese thinks massage also may do something else: promote the release of endorphins, a natural sedative that alleviates pain and produces a general sense of well-being." That topic serves as a natural segue into a discussion about quotes from John Harris, author of Fix Pain, which site the body's ability to release andogenous morphenes and canabanoids (See What is Barefoot Deep Tissue Massage?)
But that's a topic for another article...
In the meantime, if you'd like to read the original article, go to Massage helps recovery at cellular level | MiamiHerald.com |
Newsflash
Report: December 7th Free Massage Clinic for Tea Fire VictimsReport and Photos: Click here. Thank you, Laís and staff at Santa Barbara Yoga Center. Thank you for giving us therapists an opportunity to help the Tea Fire victims.
Participating Therapists...
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