It's known that having a massage after an intense workout helps soothe the pain. Now, a new study has found that its effects actually go beyond providing just a feel-good factor. Researchers at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, found that a massage after 70 minutes of workout by volunteers showed a marked increase in their muscle cells energy production, and a decrease in inflammation in the cells. For many years, people have gotten massages "without a huge amount of scientific underpinning," said study researcher Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky, head of the division of neuromuscular and neurometabolic disease at McMaster.
"Our work raises the very interesting possibility that endurance exercise may be enhanced, or at least the benefits may be enhanced, for those who have a massage following their exercise," Tarnopolsky was quoted as saying by LiveScience. In the research, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, a group of participants had to exercise rigorously for about 70 minutes. Then after a brief rest, they had one leg massaged while the other was not. The researchers analysed tissue samples taken from the mens leg muscles shortly after the massage, and again after two and a half hours of rest, and compared them with samples they had taken from the participants after a previous, briefer workout. They found two significant changes in the massaged muscles: a reduction in inflammation, and an increase in the production of mitochondria, which serve as an energy source in the body's cells.
It's remarkable to me how getting such profound effects with only 10 minutes of massage intervention. Drinking water and stretching is so important as well. But the new study suggests that "by getting a massage, the athletes are getting something that is decreasing inflammation and promoting a more positive feeling."
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