Massage for Recovery is a Myth.Or is it?

A recent article in the Times by Peta Bee suggests that the latest findings have blown the myth that massage speeds up recovery from exercise.

In a study presented at the American College of Sports Medicine’s annual conference in Seattle last week, researchers claimed to have blown the myth that massage speeds up recovery from exercise. Professor Michael Tscavovsky of the health studies department at Queens University in Ontario Canada, found that massage did not increase – but decreased – blood flow to the muscles and hindered rather than improved the removal of lactic acid and other waste material by as much as 25 per cent compared to active recovery.

Now I am confused! I have never used massage for the removal of lactic acid – I have always used and indeed teach others to use “active recovery”. I have and do use massage to “loosen” up stiff and sore muscles and have nearly always found it to be successful. Does this prove that the thousands of world class athletes out there are doing things wrong, along with their massage therapists?

I am sure that there are good and bad massage therapists out there just as in any other profession but I seriously doubt that the good ones are not doing a fantastic jobs for the athletes in their charge.

Having said that Tschavovsky goes on to say that massage is not useless but it isn’t helpful for the claimed reasons. If it does work, scientists have yet to prove how.

Interesting!