Massage Therapy Speeds Recovery in Bodybuilders After Eccentric Workouts - DOMS + CK ↓ / Performance ↑
While many athletes use it and trainers all around the world are convinced that it works, the evidence on what exactly massage therapy does or doesn't do to an exhausted athlete's muscle and lymphatic system is scarce. Even the assumption that it helps reduce DOMS may be based on a placebo effect. After all, it's impossible to conduct a truly double-blinded massage study. If they can afford it, athletes often employ their own massage therapist. It is commonly believed that sport massage after intensive exercise might improve power and perceptual recovery in sportsmen and -women. As Mehdi Kargarfard et al. (2015) point out in their latest paper, "few studies have been done in this area" to confirm what everyone appears to believe to be a scientific fact" (Kargarfard. 2015). Accordingly, the researchers' latest study aimed to examine the effect of massage on the performance of bodybuilders - a group of athletes of which only few will be able to afford...