Is it good to get a sports massage: your guide to the types, uses and benefits

CONTENTS

Types of massage

• Professional therapists (eg. “sports”, “Swedish”, “Deep Tissue”)
• Vibration massage
• Foam rollers
• Percussion massagers (Massage guns)

Potential uses

• Pre-exercise (warm-ups)
• Post-exercise (recovery)
• Muscle maintenance and enhancement
• Remedial, injury care and rehabilitation

References

The types of sports massage

• Professional therapists (eg. “sports”, “Swedish”, “Deep Tissue”)
• Vibration massage
• Foam rollers
• Percussion massagers (Massage guns)

Professional therapists

When people think of sports massage they usually think of a professional therapist using techniques such as “rubbing”, “kneading” and “stroking”. As discussed below these vary, and other types of massage do the same thing, so finding a suitable therapist may come down to trial and error.

There is no one type of "sports massage"

There is no one type of “sports massage”. Rather a typical sports massage is a combination of these techniques which vary depending on the needs of the client and preferences of the therapist.

There is no difference between a "sports massage" and other types

A “sports massage” may be practically identical to a “remedial”, “Swedish”, “Deep Tissue” or other types of massage depending on the circumstances, with the only difference being that it is done for a sports person.

Vibration massage

Vibration massage is where the vibrating head of a massager is placed over the part to be massaged and the vibrations are allowed to penetrate and have their therapeutic effects. This is very similar to the way ultrasound works. Ultrasound is just vibrations at a higher frequency.

Percussion massagers (massage guns)

Percussion massagers are a hybrid machines that try to combine vibration and conventional massage, but in reality do neither well. As discussed below they do not deliver adequate amounts of therapeutic vibrations at the correct frequency, and they are no substitute for a professional therapist.

The uses and benefits of sports massage

• Pre-exercise (warm-ups)
• Post-exercise (recovery)
• Muscle maintenance and enhancement
• Remedial, injury care and rehabilitation

Using massage pre-exercise (warm-up)

Warm-ups are done to help prepare muscles for exercise or competition, to help prevent injuries, and enhance performance. We will look at how massage can help with these.

Injury prevention

Background

If your joints are forced to move beyond their free movement or your muscles are forcibly extended you may be injured. The idea is that pre-competition massage may reduce this risk by relaxing muscles and allowing more full joint movement. While this seems perfectly reasonable, to our knowledge this has never been scientifically tested.

What we do know is this idea has been tested with stretching exercises, which also lengthen muscles and increase joint movement. However trials show that stretching exercises do not reduce the rate of injuries (3,4)⁠. The theory is that while stretching may reduce the risk of muscle strains and tears, over-stretching may allow joints to move excessively where they are more vulnerable to injury.

Injury prevention summary

It is unlikely that massage would cause excessive joint movement, so it is likely that any of the massages that help flexibility will help reduce the risk of muscle strains or tears.

Performance enhancement

Sports massage may help performance by increasing flexibility, increasing strength and increasing endurance. We will look at which massages do this, plus look at stretching and dynamic warm-ups (active movements) which are often included as part of a warm-up routine.

Massage by professionals

Massage may help flexibility, but according to the most recent review of clinical trials there is no evidence that massage has any effect on strength, endurance or fatigue (5)⁠.

Vibration massage

According to the results of many clinical trials the application of vibration massage of 30-60 Hz before exercise will:

• increase flexibility similar to that achieved by stretching exercises (6)⁠
• enhance strength (7,8), and
• increase the time taken for muscles to fatigue (9)⁠.

Foam rollers

Clinical trials have shown that foam rollers give no improvement in performance (11–15)⁠. They also show that they initially increase flexibility. The problem though (which marketing will not mention) is that the increase in flexibility only lasts less than 10 minutes (14,16,17)⁠. It seems pointless spending 10-15 minutes foam rolling only to have the increase in flexibility disappear by the time you compete.

Percussion massagers (massage guns)

While marketers claim scientific support for theses, as discussed in our guide Are massage guns scientifically proven there is no evidence that massage guns give significant benefits. The key issues are:

1. Marketers claim the benefits of vibration, wheras by driving their heads in like jackhammers they deliver less vibrations and cannot be safely used at the correct therapeutic vibration frequencies.
2. In massage gun trials they modify their machines and they way they use them. They are not testing the machines how they advocate.

Stretching

Trials show that conventional static stretching will give a prolonged increase in flexibility, but actually decrease performance.

Dynamic warm-up

Dynamic warm-up means doing movement or activities. Examples include walking or exercising. This has been show to increase flexibility and strength (18)⁠. One trial found that compared with no warm-up dynamic warm-ups actually increased the height an athlete could jump by 2” (5cm) (19)⁠. The most beneficial dynamic warm-ups involve activities and movements that mirror the requirements of your sport rather general movements (20)⁠.

For more information

Warm-ups: a guide to the best massages, stretches and exercises

Standard disclaimer: this article is general information only. For specific advice please discuss with a professional familiar with your needs.

Using massage for post exercise recovery

The purpose of recovery is to:

1. reduce your stiffness and soreness (DOMS), and
2. allow your muscles to regain their function faster.

DOMS

The deep muscular soreness you get after exercise is called DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness). You usually get this between 24 and 72 hours after the exercise)

Can massages help recovery

Massage by professionals

There have been a large number of clinical trials using massage after exercise. In summary:

• in over half showed no benefit at all (21–29)⁠ ,
• a small percentage showed massage to reduce post exercise soreness (30–32)⁠,
• a small percentage the massage reduced the post exercise stiffness and loss of function (33–35)⁠.

If you are a member of a sports club that provides massage (well done) it will feel good and you may get some benefits. However, as you will see there are better alternatives.

Vibration massage

We found nine studies where vibration massage was used after exercising. They consistently showed that this:

• reduces post exercise soreness (DOMS) (36–43)⁠
• reduces the loss of function and speed recovery (44,45)⁠, and
• blood chemical analysis shows that unwanted chemical are removed much faster (38,39,41,43)⁠.

Compared with conventional massage

As well as the results of clinical trails being better and more consistent, in one trial where vibration massage and conventional massage were compared 5 minutes of vibration gave slightly better results than 15 minutes of conventional massage (37)⁠. This means that vibration gave the same (actually slightly better) results in one third of the time. If you use our professional strength four headed massager this will probably be quicker still.

Percussion massagers (massage guns)

As discussed above while massage gun marketers claim the benefits of vibration, their machines only deliver a fraction of the theraeutic vibration a genuine vibration massager does. There is no scientific support for "punching" their heads into the muscles, and looking at it logically that is one of the last thing healing muscle fibres would need. As previously mentioned there is a journal report of someone nearly dying from internal bleeding after using a massage gun for recovery (2)⁠.

Recommendation for post exercise recovery

For effective recovery you need a complete strategy to help provide everything your muscles need to recover. This includes considerations such as sleep & rest, nutrition and hydration. Please see our Practical, science based guide to post exercise recovery .

Regular massages for maintenance and enhancement

In this section we will look at whether regular massages can improve the health of your muscles and enhance performance, and we found three clinical trials where it had done so.

The key is that there are issues such as (myofascial) trigger points, or trigger points for short, that inhibit performance, so treating these with massage can help restore normal full performance. We discuss these in our guide The effects of (myofascial) trigger points on sports and athletics performance . However, to simplify things, if you have ever had a massage and the therapist found tight ropy parts of your muscles with tender lumps they are the trigger points. Muscles that are tight and ropy with tender lumps do not perform as well and are easily injured. Massage can help remedy these.

Let us look at the three trial where this was done, then how you can do this yourself.

Trial one: regular Thai massages during a training camp (48)⁠

Athletes attending a training camp over 10 days were given three 30 minute Thai massages. These were done in the evenings. Compared with the athletes who received no massage the recipients had:

• greater measured oxygen uptake (VO2max)
• greater strength, speed and agility.

Trial two: ten week training camp in preparation for a 10k race (49)⁠

During a 10 week training camp preparing for a 10 km race half the athletes received a weekly half hour massage. 100% of those receiving the massages finished the race, while only 53% of the others finished.

Trial three: regular vibration massage reduced fatigue (50)⁠

During a three week training camp athletes received a 45-52 Hz vibration massage each evening. They suffered reduced fatigue compared with those who received no vibration massage.

How you can do this yourself

Two of the trails used conventional massages from professional therapists. Due to the expense and inconvenience this will be beyond most people who are not a professional athlete or play for a sports club that provides this service. However, the third trial used vibration massage which you can easily do yourself.

How to use vibration massage

Please see our guide Guide to vibration massage .

You will need a genuine vibration massager (not a massage gun)

Massage guns and most personal use massagers do not provide serious amounts of therapeutic vibrations at the correct frequencies. Please see our section below for advice on the equipment you will need.

Sports massage for remedial, injuries and rehabilitation

Massage is widely used and recommended by professional for the treatment and rehabilitation of sports injuries, and are used by professionals to help with sports injuries and rehabilitation. With so many potential injury and rehabilitation conditions and uses a discussion is way beyond the scope of this article. However, we’ve linked a number of references on various conditions in the resources below.

The effect of trigger points on sports and athletics performance
Is massage good for shoulder pain
Does massage help healing and recovery
How to treat tennis elbow
Massage and trigger point therapy for low back pain
Massage and trigger point therapy for calf pain
Headaches and migraine

The equipment you need to vibration massage

Vibration massage is by far the easiest and most effective therapy but you will need a proper vibration massager. As discussed in our guide Why most massagers are a waste of money , most of the vibrating massagers you can buy are not suitable.

Vibration massagers for personal use

When we were looking for a suitable vibration massager for our patients to use all the effective machines seemed to be "professional" products for therapists to use. These were expensive and not designed for self use. Because of this we built our own that pack the effectiveness of a professional unit into an economical one for self use. They are now used, recommended and sold by over a thousand clinics across half the world (some examples). For information about these and where to get them please use these links.
The General Purpose Massager
The Ultimate Quad Head Massager
Read what professionals say about DrGraeme massagers

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