Massage therapy is a growing remedy for professional athletes to weekend joggers. A 2010 study in the journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that even a 30-second massage improved hip-flexor range of motion. Another study conducted by Margaret Jones, Ph.D. of the American College of Sports Medicine, demonstrated a notable trend toward decreased muscle soreness in the athletes who received massage either before or after exercise. The role massage can play in sports for rehabilitation & recovery is astounding.
Recently, researchers at McMaster University reported that a deep massage after an intense workout actually causes muscles to enlarge and grow new mitochondria. Mitochondria, the powerhouses of our cells, are responsible for converting nutrients into useful energy.
For this study, the researchers had men to exercise to exhaustion on stationary bicycles. After the workout, the men had a Swedish-style deep-tissue massage on one leg for 10 minutes. Muscle biopsies were taken from one quadriceps muscle before and after the workout, and from both muscles immediately after a 10 minute massage of one leg, and again two and a half hours later. The deep-tissue massage increased the size and number of new mitochondria more than exercising without massage. Increasing mitochondria can improve endurance performance by increasing the rate that muscles can utilize oxygen.
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