In this article, I will discuss massage therapy and athletes.
There is something called massage therapy, but in Japan, it refers to massage therapy.
However, there is a current situation in which the number of people who perform massage therapy has been increasing in recent years, and it is originally decided that only the massage therapist is the person who gives massage as a business by the legal right of "business monopoly".
It is the current situation that there is not only the massage that the person who has some kind of national qualification does but also the one that the unqualified person gives widely because it is the industry where the area has become naive.
There are many different types of massage therapy depending on the condition of the body.
(I'm a judo therapist, so I'm not an expert.) When such different types of massage are used on athletes, which method is more advantageous?Here is a study that investigates which method is more advantageous for athletes.
Contents of the study
This is a study comparing traditional massage methods with a control group.
The study was conducted on 20 athletes recruited from a sports club.
The group that included the traditional massage technique: 5 minutes of levitation, 10 minutes of petrissage, and 5 minutes of tapotement (20 minutes total). The pressure applied to the technique was determined by the Watson pressure scale, using the highest level of pressure (strong and deep pressure). This procedure was repeated for each leg.
The control group: received the control intervention at the same time as the other groups (20 minutes) and maintained only light contact with the participants, without applying mechanical pressure corresponding to light lotion pressure.
Measurements were taken on two fronts: physical examination and psychological measurements, which were taken after the intervention.
The resulting data suggest that the traditional massage group performed better in terms of physical functioning, and both groups showed a significant improvement in mood state in terms of psychological functioning.
Author's Conclusion
Our results suggest that classical massage may be an effective intervention to improve functional physical variables in athletes. However, trends suggest that lighter touch interventions may cause improvements in physiological measures.
Espí-López GV, Serra-Añó P, Cuenca-Martínez F, Suso-Martí L, Inglés M. Comparison Between Classic and Light Touch Massage on Psychological and Physical Functional Variables in Athletes: a Randomized Pilot Trial. Int J Ther Massage Bodywork. 2020;13(3):30-37. Published 2020 Aug 27.
Conclusion
There were no unusual conclusions, but the results may be advantageous for commonly used massage methods.
However, there are a few aspects of the results that we need to be aware of in practice.
First, with regard to the intensity of the massage, it is important to recognize that psychological influences are strong in the response to the effects of massage, as patients may seek stronger stimulation depending on their preferences, even if the intensity is physiologically undesirable.
Second, although the results above do not go into that much detail, the physical examinations being compared are muscle strength measurements performed in the supine position and measure only the muscles of the lower extremities, so there is too much to be said for these results to be taken on faith.
Finally, as far as the massage provider is concerned, there are some results from another study that show that patients withdraw because they don't like something about the massage.
According to this study, many of the patients who withdrew thought that if they were given a massage that they did not like, they would just ask someone else to give it to them.As a massage practitioner, I cannot expect to improve my skills without such feedback, and it is important to know this aspect.
The above was a study of how athletes react to massage methods. I hope this will be of some help to those who give massages.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, this is a problem that I personally do not like, and I wonder if there is anything that can be done about it.
