The best massage for sports recovery

The massage options

Self massage options

Manual massage

There are a wide range of contraptions such as balls and rollers that are designed to help self apply the techniques professional therapists use.

Vibrating massagers

There are two types of massagers that vibrate.

• vibration massagers
• percussion massagers

Looking at the effectiveness of each

Massage from professional therapists

The main scientifically proven benefits

A 2020 scientific review called “Effects of sports massage on performance and recovery” reviewed 29 clinical trials (1)⁠. In summary, they found that massage gave a 13% reduction in post exercise soreness (DOMS or Delayed onset Muscle Soreness ) and a 7% increase in flexibility.

Other recovery benefits

Another issue is that due to microscopic damage to your muscles during sports or exercise your muscles suffer a temporary reduction in strength and endurance. This loss will continue until recovered. Massage has also been shown to reduce this loss of strength and endurance, and speed recovery (2,3)⁠.

When should you have a massage

We could not find any studies that compared having a massage before or after exercising, All we found was one study that showed it was better to be massaged immediately after exercise rather than having a considerable delay (4)⁠.

Self massage using balls and rollers

Balls and foam rollers are widely used as a way get practically unlimited self massage. Their marketing material often refers to studies showing them to be effective. The reality is though, as we discuss in our article Do foam rollers work we found a total of 11 clinical trials and the actual results were either minimal or none. They were certainly no where near those achieved in the trials where professional therapists were used. Further, as discussed in the same article we believe that the real world results from using balls and rollers would be even worse, and in my experience as a Chiropractor for 27 years a lot of people hurt themselves with these for very little benefit.

The reason real world results are less than those in clinical trials

In clinical trials patients are excluded if using balls or rollers would not be suitable or be unsafe. They are then given excellent instructions and supervision. This is a perfect world scenario. On the other hand in the real world people use balls and rollers without instruction or supervision, and sometimes on conditions where this therapy is inappropriate or unsafe.

Vibrating massagers

There are two types of vibrating massagers available for self use. We’ve summarised the differences below, and got full details in our article Percussion massage vs vibration massage.

What the science says about vibration massage and post exercise recovery

We found 11 clinical trials of vibration massage for sports and exercise recovery summarised in the appendix. Apart from three that used woefully inadequate massagers, all gave excellent results which included:

• reducing post exercise soreness (DOMS or Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness)
• reducing the amount of unwanted chemicals such as lactic acid,
• reducing the loss of strength and endurance, and speeding recovery.
• Vibration massage is much faster than manual massage. In one trial (5)⁠ 5 minutes of vibration gave better results than 15 minutes of massage.

The three that didn’t give good results

Why did three trials produce poor results? In our article How to choose a massager we give the appropriate specifications for a therapeutic vibration massager. In order to give effective vibration:

1. the vibration frequency should range from 30-55 Hz (cycles per second).
2. The vibrating head needs to go up and down from 3-5mm

The clinical trials where massage was applied using massagers with these specifications all gave excellent results. On the other hand, as shown below the three trials that gave very poor results used massagers that were totally inadequate to deliver effective therapeutic vibrations. I have emailed each of the researchers offering them the use of effective machines should they ever do further studies.

• Trial one (7): 73 Hz, 0.5 mm
• Trial two (8): 120 hz, 1.2 mm
• Trial three (9): 50 Hz, 0.9 mm

When to use vibration massage

In the trials some used the vibration massage before exercising, some used it after, while others used an application after then daily during recovery. From these results:

1. vibration before and after are both effective, but before is slightly more so,
2. applying vibration massage after then daily during recovery gave excellent results.

The practical reality is that if you have your own massager the optimal solution would be to to use it both before and after, then daily during recovery.

How long to apply the vibration for

We noted that in the trials the researchers used applications ranging for one minute to 30 minutes. From our knowledge of massagers the usage time required would depend on a lot of things including:

• the size of the muscle(s) being massaged,
• the power of the massager and the size of the application head, and
• the condition of the muscles.

However, we can generally say that the trial results were consistent with our clinical experience and what we advise in our usage guide.

Our recommendations

Which massage is best for sports recovery? Based upon the clinical trials and other scientific evidence, to help reduce post exercise soreness (DOMS or Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) and speed recovery we make the following recommendations.

Recommended

1. massage by professional therapists, and
2. self applied vibration massage (much faster, less cost)

Not recommended

1. Massage guns
2. Balls and foam rollers

Additional recommendations

Massage is only part of an effective strategy to reduce post exercise soreness and speed recovery. There are other things such as adequate rest, hydration and nutrition, plus other therapies that may be useful. For a complete strategy please see our Practical, science based guide to post exercise recovery.

Professionally applied massage therapy

From the clinical trial results having a massage from a professional therapist either before or after sports or a workout will reduce post exercise soreness and speed recovery. We also note that massages are proven to increase flexibility by 7% which could help athletic performance and reduce the risk of injuries such as muscle tears. As discussed, the skill and knowledge of the therapist and the type of massage he or she does is more important than what the massage is called. You may need to seek recommendations or trial some in order to find the best for you.

Vibration massagers

As we’ve seen vibration massagers are highly effective. Also because basically all you need to do is sit the head of the massager on the site to be massaged and allow the machine to do the work vibration massage can easily and effectively be self applied. For how to apply vibration massage please see our article How to use a hand held massager.

When to use vibration massage

Noting that all information in this article is general information only, to be discussed with a professional familiar with your specific needs, vibration massage was shown to be useful before exercise, after exercise, and during recovery. If you have your own vibration massage unit the optimum might be to use it before exercise, after exercise, and each day during recovery.

You will need a decent vibration massager

This is where there’s been a problem. A few years ago a team of UK researchers studied the commonly available personal use hand held massagers (6). That is the type of massage available for someone like you to use at home (or the gym). They found that they were ineffective. Basically the manufacturers were more concerned about how their machines looked on shop shelves rather than how they worked.

Since then it’s actually become worse, and now we also have heavily marketed massage guns that are really ineffective and dangerous gimmicks. As a Chiropractor for over 27 years I had patients that needed a decent effective home massage unit so unable to find anything I was happy to recommend I had my own built. Please allow me to share them with you.

Appendix: the problems with larger massagers, and how we've overcome them

Solving this with our twin rocker mechanism

There are also a lot of other multi head machines that use a see saw mechanism. They have exactly the same problem, except that they rock from side to side rather than bounce up and down.

References

1. Davis HL, Alabed S, Chico TJA. Effect of sports massage on performance and recovery: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ Open Sport Exerc Med. 2020;6(1):e000614.
2. Mancinelli CA, Davis DS, Aboulhosn L, Brady M, Eisenhofer J, Foutty S. The effects of massage on delayed onset muscle soreness and physical performance in female collegiate athletes. Phys Ther Sport. 2006;7(1):5–13.
3. Naderi A, Aminian-Far A, Gholami F, Mousavi SH, Saghari M, Howatson G. Massage enhances recovery following exercise-induced muscle damage in older adults. Scand J Med Sci Sport. 2021;31(3):623–32.
4. Haas C, Butterfield TA, Abshire S, Zhao Y, Zhang X, Jarjoura D. Massage timing affects postexercise muscle recovery and inflammation in a rabbit model. Med Sci Sport Exerc. 2013;45(6):1105–12.
5. Imtiyaz S, Veqar Z, Shareef MY. To compare the effect of vibration therapy and massage in prevention of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). J Clin Diagnostic Res. 2014;
6. McDonagh D, Wilson L, Haslam C, Weightman D. Good vibrations: Do electrical therapeutic massagers work? Ergonomics. 2005;
7. Kamandani R, Ghazalian F, Ebrahim K, Ghassembaglou N, Shiri Piraghaj M, Khorram A. The Effect of Acute Vibration Training on Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness in Young Non-Athlete Women. Heal Scope. 2015;
8. Fuller JT, Thomson RL, Howe PRC, Buckley JD. Effect of vibration on muscle perfusion: A systematic review. Clin Physiol Funct Imaging. 2013;33(1):1–10.
9. Cochrane D. Effectiveness of using wearable vibration therapy to alleviate muscle soreness. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2017;117:501–9.
10. Pournot H, Tindel J, Testa R, Mathevon L, Lapole T. The acute effect of local vibration as a recovery modality from exercise-induced increased muscle stiffness. J Sport Sci Med. 2016;15(1):142–7.
11. Lau WY, Nosaka K. Effect of vibration treatment on symptoms associated with eccentric exercise-induced muscle damage. Am J Phys Med Rehabil. 2011;
12. Bakhtiary AH, Safavi-Farokhi Z, Aminian-Far A. Influence of vibration on delayed onset of muscle soreness following eccentric exercise. Br J Sports Med. 2007;
13. Koeda T. A trial to evaluate experimentally induced delayed onset muscle soreness and its modulation by vibration. Environ Med. 2003;47:26–30.
14. Rhea MR. Effect of iTonic Whole-Body Vibration on Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness Among Untrained Individuals. J Strength Cond Res. 2009;23(6):1677–82.
15. Percival S et al. Local vibration therapy increases oxygen re-saturation rate and maintains muscle strength following exerciseinduced muscle damage. J Athl Train. 2021;Aug 17.
16. von Stengel S, Teschler M, Weissenfels A, Willert S, Kemmler W. Effect of deep oscillation as a recovery method after fatiguing soccer training: A randomized cross-over study. J Exerc Sci Fit. 2018;16(3):112–7.