Effects of leg massage on recovery from high intensity cycling exercise

Robertson A, Watt JM, Galloway SD

BACKGROUND: The effect of massage on recovery from high intensity exercise is debatable. Many studies on massage suffer from methodological flaws such as poor standardisation of previous exercise, lack of dietary control, and inappropriate massage duration. OBJECTIVE: To examine the effects of leg massage compared with passive recovery on lactate clearance, muscular power output, and fatigue characteristics after repeated high intensity cycling exercise, with the conditions before the intervention controlled and standardised. METHODS: Nine male games players participated. They attended the laboratory on two occasions one week apart and at the same time of day. Dietary intake and activity were replicated for the two preceding days on each occasion. After baseline measurement of heart rate and blood lactate concentration, subjects performed a standardised warm up on the cycle ergometer. This was followed by six standardised 30 second high intensity exercise bouts, interspersed with 30 seconds of active recovery. After five minutes of active recovery and either 20 minutes of leg massage or supine passive rest, subjects performed a second standardised warm up and a 30 second Wingate test. Capillary blood samples were drawn at intervals, and heart rate, peak power, mean power, and fatigue index were recorded.

RESULTS: There were no significant differences in mean power during the initial high intensity exercise bouts (p = 0.92). No main effect of massage was observed on blood lactate concentration between trials (p = 0.82) or heart rate (p = 0.81). There was no difference in the maximum power (p = 0.75) or mean power (p = 0.66) in the subsequent Wingate test, but a significantly lower fatigue index was observed in the massage trial (p = 0.04; mean (SD) fatigue index 30.2 (4.1)% v 34.2 (3.3)%).

CONCLUSIONS: No measurable physiological effects of leg massage compared with passive recovery were observed on recovery from high intensity exercise, but the subsequent effect on fatigue index warrants further investigation.

Br J Sports Med.2004; 38: 173-176 - full text PDF

doi: 10.1136/bjsm.2002.003186

Filed under: Cycling, Recovery, Recovery massage

Effects of petrissage massage on fatigue and exercise performance following intensive cycle pedaling

Ogai R, Yamane M, Matsumoto T and Kosaka M

Objective: Petrissage is assumed to influence circulation as well as interstitial drainage of both superficial and deep tissues. To study its effect it was applied between consecutive bouts of supra-maximal exercise performed by the lower leg muscles. Methods: Subjects were 11 healthy female students actively engaged in sports. Exercise bouts of ergometer cycling at loads determined individually (0.75 kp x body weight [kg]) for 5 sec repeated 8-times at intervals of 20 sec had to be performed twice on an experimental day with 35 min intermittent bed rest. Each subject was investigated on two occasions with a minimum interval of one week, once without (control, CO) and once with 10 min petrissage (massage, MA) of the exercising lower leg during the bed rest phase. Effects of exercise bouts on blood lactate, muscle stiffness and perceived lower-limb fatigue and their recovery before and after the second exercise bout were determined. Result: For the first exercise bouts total power did not differ between MA and CO. Courses of blood lactate did not differ between MA and CO. However, recovery from measured muscle stiffness (P < 0.05) and perceived lower-limb fatigure (P < 0.05) were more pronounced and total power during the second exercise bout was enhanced (P < 0.01) in MA as compared to CO subjects.

Conclusion: Petrissage improved cycle ergometer pedaling performance independent of blood lactate but in correlation with improved recovery from muscle stiffness and perceived lower-limb fatigue.

British  Journal of Sports Medicine. Published Online First: 2 April 2008.

doi:10.1136/bjsm.2007.044396

Filed under: Cycling, Massage, Petrissage, Recovery massage