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More thoughts on how massage works
May 23, 2009By Alex Hutchinson
I posted last week about an interesting study on how massage works (or doesn’t). Michael Tschakovsky and his colleagues at Queen’s University concluded that, contrary to popular belief, deep-tissue massage doesn’t “flush out lactic acid” from tired muscles by enhancing circulation. In fact, they observed the opposite effect: massage actually appears to inhibit circulation.
But that doesn’t mean massage doesn’t work at all. Paul Taylor has a nice piece on this study in the Globe and Mail that contains a few new nuggets — in particular, some thoughts about how massage might actually work:
Why then does a massage feel so good? Dr. Tschakovsky can’t yet say for sure, but he suspects that it helps stops muscle spasms. “The pressure applied to the muscle … breaks the cycle of the nerve that is causing the muscle to contract so your muscle will relax,” he speculated.
Alex Hutchinson
Alex Hutchinson is the author of "Which Comes First, Cardio or Weights? Fitness Myths, Training Truths, and Other Surprising Discoveries from the Science of Exercise," published in 2011 by McClelland & Stewart (http://CardioOrWeights.com). He is a senior editor at Canadian Running, and a regular columnist on the science of fitness for the Globe and Mail. Alex competed for the Canadian national team in track, cross-country and road running between 1997 and 2008.
Also by Alex:
- Compression helps you recover after strength training
- Burning calories without stimulating appetite
- The case against antioxidant vitamins
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