The benefits of sports massage

Types of sports massage

The trial results and benefits you receive depend on the type of massage used. In this section we will briefly outline each option, including professional therapies and ones you can do yourself.

Conventional massage by therapists

"Sports massage" is not just one type of massage

You will see “sports massage” described as a particular type of massage, but "sports massages" vary widely depending on:

• the skills and preferences of the therapist, and
• the needs of the patient (eg. “warm ups”, recovery, rehabilitation)

Sports massages compared with other massages

While a "sports massage" may sound like a different type of massage, the various forms of sports massage may be identical to other types of massage such as "remedial", "Swedish" or "relaxation". The reality is that often the only difference is that one is being done on a sports person.

Self applied sports massages

• Foam rollers
• Vibration massage (not massage guns)
• Massage guns

The benefits of sports massage

For each of the following benefits we will discuss what to expect, what the clinical trial results say about each massage choice, plus any practical advice.

1. prepare muscles and prevent injury
2. help athletic performance
3. reduce post exercise soreness and help recovery
4. help sports injuries and rehabilitation

Prepare muscles and prevent injury

Sports massages are said to help prepare muscles and prevent injury by:

• flushing muscles with blood, and
• relaxing/lengthening muscles.

Flushing muscle with blood

Both conventional massage and vibration massage will increase blood flow (1–4)⁠. However, you will probably get a similar or better increase by using simple warm up exercises.

Relaxing/lengthening muscles

Tight muscles are more likely to tear. It is believed that massage will help relax and lengthen muscles, reducing the risk of injury (5,6)⁠. While this has never been tested it seems quite reasonable. Both conventional massage and vibration massage have been shown to relax and lengthen muscles (7)⁠. Foam rollers have been shown to lengthen muscles, but this lengthening lasts less than 10 minutes (8–10)⁠

Practical advice

While massage can be useful, it should be done as part of a complete warm up routine. For more information please see our article Warm-ups: a guide to reducing injuries, increasing performance, and reducing post exercise soreness .

Help athletics performance

When looking at whether sports massage can help sports or athletics performance we need to consider two types of usage.

1. Before exercise or competition
2. Regular massages.

Massages before sports or exercise

There have been a lot of trials looking at performance immediately after having a massage.

Conventional massage

Trials of conventional massages before exercises showed that they did not increase performance (11)⁠

Vibration massage

Trials have shown that the application of 30-60hz vibration before exercise will:

• increase strength (12,13)⁠.
• increase the time taken to fatigue (14)⁠.

Foam rolling

Trials of foam rolling have shown no increase in performance (8,15–18)⁠.

Massage guns

As discussed above there is no evidence that massage guns do anything worthwhile. Marketers make misleading claims and modify their machines for clinical trials.

Regular massages

While the section above looked at the immediate effects of having a massage the next section looks at the effects of having regular massages with the view to improving the function of muscles or removing issues that may inhibit their function.

(Myofascial) trigger points inhibit function

Trigger points are those tender lumps in your muscles that therapists find. As discussed in our article article on the effects of (myofascial) trigger points on sports and athletics performance they can have a considerable effect on the ability of muscles to perform fully. They:

• reduce strength,
• cause tightness,
• cause muscles to rapidly fatigue,
• slow the response of a muscle, and
• impair neurological control.

Post exercise recovery

How massage is said to help

For a few days after strenuous exercise you will probably suffer some muscle soreness and reduced muscle function. This is because exercises cause microscopic damage to your muscle fibres. Massages are said to help by:

1. relaxing the muscles, relieving tightness and tension,
2. stimulating blood flow, helping remove the breakdown products while bringing in fresh nutiients.

With that, there have been a large number of clinical trial conducted so let us look at what they have found.

Conventional massages from a therapist

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

• in over half showed no benefit at all ⁠⁠(22–30)⁠
• a small percentage showed massage to reduce post exercise soreness (31–33)⁠
• a small percentage the massage reduced the post exercise stiffness and loss of function ⁠⁠(34–36)⁠

Vibration massage (not massage guns)

Vibration massage has produced by far the most benefit in clinical trials. We found nine studies where vibration massage was used after exercising. They consistently showed that this:

• reduces post exercise soreness (DOMS) (37–44)⁠
• reduces the loss of function and speed recovery (44,45)⁠ and
• blood chemical analysis shows that unwanted chemical are removed much faster (40,42,44)⁠

Foam rollers

Despite the marketing a recent review of 21 clinical trials found that foam rollers only had minor or negligible effects on post exercise recovery (53)⁠ while others express concerns about the potential damage they may cause (52)⁠.

Massage guns (percussion massagers)

As discussed above there is no evidence that massage guns do anything worthwhile. Marketers make misleading claims and modify their machines for clinical trials.

Practical advice

Rather than just rely on a form of therapy we recommend a complete strategy to help provide everything your muscle need to recover. This includes appropriate rest, hydration, nutrition, plus various other things that can help. For more information please see our guide . The practical, science based guide to post exercise recovery

Help sports injuries and rehabilitation

Both conventional and vibration massage are widely used by professionals to help with sports injuries and rehabilitation. For more information please see some of these articles.
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

Resource for fitness professionals

Please check out our video guide for fitness professionals.

References

In this section

• summary tables of clinincal trail results
• complete references listing

References

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