Using Massage to Rehab Sore Muscles

Guest post by Renee Sanchez

Many people suffer from sore muscles whether it is due to exercising, long days at work or even just through the natural aging process.  No matter the reason for your sore muscles, you’re probably just looking for relief so you can relax and sleep at night.  There was an experiment conducted by researchers to find out exactly what happens when muscles go through the massage processes.  The following are the steps that were taken and what was concluded from the experiment

The Experiment

The experiment required subjects to offer tissue samples through a biopsy procedure before and after the subject exercised.  First, the subject offered a sample of a leg muscle while it was resting and before the exercise routine began.  After this incision was allowed to heal so it would have no impact on the results, the same subjects were placed on a station bicycle until they were exhausted and could go no further.  Another biopsy was taken directly after exercise from one leg.  The other leg was massaged for ten minutes and it too had a sample taken along with the leg that was not massaged.  After a period of rest, they took more samples in order to see the progress of the injuries and repairs

Over Exercise Injuries

When the muscles are over exercised there are small tears in the muscles that can lead to reactions in the immune system such as inflammation.  This is caused when the body goes into overtime to fix the cells that were torn during the overexertion.   It has always been thought that massage helps to repair those little tears because it caused higher blood flow through the damaged tissue but was never tested before.  This brave set of subjects allowed themselves to be cut time and time again to get the samples needed to determine if massage was really that beneficial or if the tissue would have repaired itself without the need for massage

The Results

It was found that massage not only increased the blood flow to the damaged cells but also aided in the production of certain compounds which aided in healing.  One compound, known as Cytokines, which aid in the inflammation of the cells, was also reduced.  Mitochondria, the compound that helps turn Glucose into energy were increased in the muscles that were massaged.  In layman’s terms, the massage did indeed help the overexerted and damaged muscles rebound from the stress that was put on them to heal faster and more effectively.  There are drugs on the market that offer the same results but many would rather have a good massage rather than taking drugs, which may also restrict the healing process in the long run.

So if you exercise a great deal and you find that you’re exerting yourself a bit too much, you may want to invest in a handheld massager like the Hitachi wand.  Unless you want to spend a great deal of money on massage therapies every time you workout, this is the next best option.

Author Bio:  Renee Sanchez has been aiding individuals in their recovery from sore muscles for many years.