Topic: Can a Massage quicken the reconstruction of muscle?

[Grayson]

My cousin (who is a massage therapist) said it could, but I've never heard of anything like that? anyone know anything about this? 

[Dan Elric]

I'll just say a simple answer: Yes.  Massage improves blood flow, which is key to healing.  Not to mention it feels good.  It is like double awesomeness.

[Chris Salvato]

Yes...but you better get better at self massage and foam rolling.

Paying 60 bucks after each workout is kind of...insane and unnecessary.

[Spencer B]

Paying 60 bucks after each workout is kind of...insane and unnecessary.

It's his cousin... He probably gets a discount or if he's really lucky, free massages.

[Chris Salvato]

Paying 60 bucks after each workout is kind of...insane and unnecessary.

It's his cousin... He probably gets a discount or if he's really lucky, free massages.

erm, i guess i meant for the rest of us unfortunate souls

[tombb]

The answer is not really. And speeding up is probably the wrong word.

Increase blood flow in your muscles is generally a good thing of course, even if it's just from a massage or a hot shower or a warmup.
But muscle growth and reconstruction can be a very involved process involving a coordinated inflammatory response and progenitor cells proliferation and migration.  That takes several days and increased blood flow will not shorten those steps.

For example, take this study:

...There were no significant differences between treatments. Ice massage is ineffective in reducing the indirect markers associated with exercise-induced muscle damage and enhancing recovery of muscle function in male exercisers unaccustomed to eccentric biased exercise."

Basically again it's not bad for you, and it probably feels good and has other unrelated advantages, but doesn't really speed up anything.

[Chris Salvato]

Woot, thanks for the clarification, tom

[Steven Low]

TOm that says ICE massage not just massage is ineffective.

Anyway, massage helps:

1. increase blood flow
2. stimulate natural inflammatory processes (for healing)
3. help break up adhesions, tangled up fibers/tissue, etc.
4. emotional/psychological benefits, etc.

All good stuff. Tissue mobilization DEFINITELY has an effect on increasing healing, BUT it depends on what exactly the injury is.

Insofar as speeding up healing of natural inflammatory processes, no. Improving rate of recovery overall (but not necessarily quicker), yes.

[Grayson]

So what if your just wanting to rebuild muscle fibers after a workout? Or could it possibly decrease the healing time of my Osgood Shlatters?

[tombb]

TOm that says ICE massage not just massage is ineffective.

Yes, that is ice massage, but I haven't seen any study showing that massage without ice or any other type of massage is any better.  If you know of any, please reference them. Otherwise I think it's fair to stick with the scientific consensus that massage in general does not speed up muscle growth and recovery and does not alleviate longer-term symptom of muscle growth like delayed muscle soreness, aside from only momentary relief.

So what if your just wanting to rebuild muscle fibers after a workout? Or could it possibly decrease the healing time of my Osgood Shlatters?

To rebuild muscle fibers after a workout you need mainly two thing: time (especially rest time) and proteins+energy. Those two things will make the most impact, especially protein and energy right after a workout and a good night of sleep and possibly one or two rest days after that. Massage on the other hand won't do anything for that, although it's still good for you in other ways.
Also, resting more will improve muscle rebuilding but at some point it's a tradeoff with the gains you could get with additional training stimulation. That's even more so if you are not building muscle size but you are training a specific performance aspect like strength, which can benefit from more frequent workouts.

About your knee inflammation, what you need most is letting it rest and heal up. Massage is not bad for that but the most important thing is giving it time to heal and not overexerting it, so if a massage gives you some temporary relief and you decide to put stress on it, you are doing the wrong thing.

[Steven Low]

Yes, that is ice massage, but I haven't seen any study showing that massage without ice or any other type of massage is any better.  If you know of any, please reference them. Otherwise I think it's fair to stick with the scientific consensus that massage in general does not speed up muscle growth and recovery and does not alleviate longer-term symptom of muscle growth like delayed muscle soreness, aside from only momentary relief.

I don't need any studies to tell me that massage techniques such as myofascial release, ART, graston, etc. improve tissue function/recovery/etc. especially on acute injuries.

The "worse" an injury is, the more it tends to help. It's not surprising that after "regular" workouts where there's not much damage all of the studies don't see a statistically significant cumulative effect (because they only do it after one session).

I used to have a packet of >100 studies on massage that I got from one of my classes but I don't know where it is anymore. Oh well.

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Like Tom said it definitely does not speed up healing of things that are constrained biologically such as muscle repair. It may help improve overall tissue function IF tissue function is compromised for any specific reason... but it won't directly speed up the healing process.

With Osgood massage can definitely improve it... but marginally (speaking from experience). Best you should do is stretching your quads to help prevent atrophy, rest, and ice to keep excessive inflammation down. Fish oil is good as well.