The benefits of sports massage

Claims vs reality

During the research for this article we found that un-substantiated misleading claims on websites and in marketing were almost the rule rather than the exception. As you will see this article is properly referenced with several tables of summarised scientific results near the end.

Types of sports massage

Conventional massage by therapists

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)

The reality is that sports massages can take many forms, with the only difference between a sports massage and other types such as remedial, Swedish or relaxation is that they are being done on a sports person.

Self applied sports massages

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

The benefits of sports massage

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 the best massages, stretches and exercises .

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

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.

Studies show what is possible

As discussed in our article Does massage help athletic or sports performance there have been three studies where regular massages (vibration and Thai) have improved performance (19–21)⁠. This is a realistic option for most people because with the proper equipment vibration massage can effectively be self applied.

Post exercise recovery

Strenuous exercise will cause microscopic damage to your muscle fibres, resulting in:

• muscle tightness,
• soreness (called DOMS = Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness), and
• reduced muscle performance.

Massage is thought to help recovery by relaxing the muscles and increasing blood flow. There have been a large number of clinical trials looking at this 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 (46)⁠ while others express concerns about the potential damage they may cause (47)⁠.

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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2. Maloney-Hinds C, Petrofsky JS, Zimmerman G. The effect of 30 Hz vs. 50 Hz passive vibration and duration of vibration on skin blood flow in the arm. Med Sci Monit. 2008;14(3):CR112-6.
3. Nakagami G, Sanada H, Matsui N, Kitagawa A, Yokogawa H, Sekiya N, et al. Effect of vibration on skin blood flow in an in vivo microcirculatory model. Biosci Trends. 2007;1(3):161–6.
4. Gasibat Q, Suwehli W. Determining the Benefits of Massage Mechanisms: A Review of Literature. Artic J Rehabil Sci. 2017;2(3):58–67.
5. Small K, Mc Naughton L, Matthews M. A systematic review into the efficacy of static stretching as part of a warm-up for the prevention of exercise-related injury. Res Sport Med. 2008;16(3):213–31.
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