14 DAY TRIAL // We’ve often heard that the best way to relax after a strenuous workout, as well as to prevent sore muscles the next day is by means of the killer combo sauna plus massage. Most of the time, it has also been said, massage alone could do the trick, and this has become to represent a universally held belief. It’s still a lie, though, a new study comes to show, as physorg can confirm.
The widely held belief that post-workout massage can influence muscle blood flow and help rid of lactic acid is not grounded in facts, Kinesiology MSc candidate Vicky Wiltshire and Kinesiology and Health Studies professor Michael Tschakovsky say for the aforementioned source. In doing so, the two become the first specialists to approach this myth from a scientific point of view, a thing that, strangely, no one did before them.
“This dispels a common belief in the general public about the way in which massage is beneficial. It also dispels that belief among people in the physical therapy profession. All the physical therapy professionals that I have talked to, when asked what massage does, answer that it improves muscle blood flow and helps get rid of lactic acid. Ours is the first study to challenge this and rigorously test its validity.” Tschakovsky says for the aforementioned medical publication.
According to the e-zine, the myth that massage can rid muscles of lactic acid – thus guarantee less pain the morning after the workout – is so widespread that it’s even listed on the Canadian Sports Massage Therapists website as a benefit of the massage, despite the fact that there is literally no evidence to support it. It’s strange how not only regular people but even experts have accepted this theory without no scientific backing whatsoever, the publication further says, which is why this study was necessary.
“Vicky Wiltshire and Dr. Tschakovsky set out to discover if this untested hypothesis was true, and their results show that massage actually impairs blood flow to the muscle after exercise, and that it therefore also impairs the removal of lactic acid from muscle after exercise.” physorg says of the research, underlining that a post-work massage can actually do more harm than good in terms of pain felt after a couple of hours. The study will be presented at the annual American College of Sports Medicine conference in Seattle, Washington, at the end of the month.