Effects of Massage on the Short-term Post-exercise Recovery

Objectives: To analyze the behavior of the effects of massage on clinical, metabolic and functional variables in different scenarios: i) under no stress or massage application; ii) after massage; iii) after exhaustion protocol; iv) after the immediate application of post-exercise massage; v) after application of the massage 1hour post-exercise.

Method: This was a randomized cross-over clinical trial in which 24 participants had their clinical, functional and metabolic outcome data analyzed under different scenarios: i) control scenario (CO): basal condition (under no stress or massage application); ii) Massage (MA): after receiving the massage; iii) Exhaustion protocol (PE): after protocol of exhaustion; iv) PE + immediate massage (EMI): after the protocol of exhaustion followed immediately by massage; iv) PE + delayed massage (EMT): after the protocol of exhaustion and massage received 1h after its end. The exhaustion protocol used consisted of 10 series of 10 jumps and one Wingate test and the manual massage protocol was composed of 12 minutes of massage, 3 minutes for the anterior region of the thigh of each lower limb and 6 minutes to the dorsal trunk. The variables studied were: muscle soreness, perceived recovery, maximal voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC), strength and power in the guided bar, vertical jump and blood lactate concentration \[Lac\].

Measurements. The primary outcome measures will be measured 2h after the start of each stage, and the secondary outcome measures will be measured at specific times during each stage. The primary outcome includes measures of functional performance, and the measures of secondary outcome includes clinical and metabolic variables.

Introduction: Background: Massage has been shown over the years a recuperative technique widely used in sports. Studies demonstrate divergent results of the technique in terms of recovery of functional, clinical and metabolic performance after exercise. The wide methodological variety of these studies, as in relation to the moment of massage application, may be a possible justification for such a scenario. Thus, the study investigating the effects of massage applied at different moments of post-exercise recovery deserves to be highlighted.

Objectives: To analyze the behavior of the effects of massage on clinical, metabolic and functional variables in different scenarios: i) under no stress or massage application; ii) after massage; iii) after exhaustion protocol; iv) after the immediate application of post-exercise massage; v) after application of the massage 1hour post-exercise.

Design: A cross-over randomized clinical trial.

Method: This was a randomized cross-over clinical trial in which 24 participants had their clinical, functional and metabolic outcome data analyzed under different scenarios: i) control scenario (CO): basal condition (under no stress or massage application); ii) Massage (MA): after receiving the massage; iii) Exhaustion protocol (PE): after protocol of exhaustion; iv) PE + immediate massage (EMI): after the protocol of exhaustion followed immediately by massage; iv) PE + delayed massage (EMT): after the protocol of exhaustion and massage received 1h after its end. Exhaustion protocol: consisted of 10 series of 10 jumps and one Wingate test. Manual massage protocol: was composed of 12 minutes of massage, 3 minutes for the anterior region of the thigh of each lower limb and 6 minutes to the dorsal trunk.

Measurements. The primary outcome measures will be measured 2h after the start of each stage, and the secondary outcome measures will be measured at specific times during each stage. The primary measures includes the Strength and power test, Maximal voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC) and Squat jump. The secondary measures includes the subjective pain assessment, perception of recovery, psychological questionnaire, belief questionnaire and de analysis blood lactate concentration.

The variables studied were: muscle soreness, perceived recovery, maximal voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC), strength and power in the guided bar, vertical jump and blood lactate concentration \[Lac\].

Analysis: The normality of the data will be evaluated through the Shapiro-Wilk test. The sphericity of the data was tested by the Mauchly's test. In case of breach of the sphericity assumption, Greenhouse-Geisser corrections were used. Effect size was calculated using partial eta-square (η²) and interpreted as small (≥0.01), moderate (≥0.06) or large (≥0.14). When identified a large effect size, was used the Friedman's test with post-hoc Bonferroni test, for soreness and perceived recovery, and Repeated Measures ANOVA with post-hoc Tukey's test for vertical jump and MVIC. The level of significance was set at 5%.

Eligibility Criteria:
Inclusion Criteria:

* Healthy (self-report)
* Male gender;
* Aged between 18-30 years;

Exclusion Criteria:

* Presence of anemia, inflammation, or diabetes;
* History of muscle injury in the lower limbs or trunk in the previous six months;