Therapist education impacts the massage effect on postrace muscle recovery.
OBJECTIVE
The intention of this study was to assess the effectiveness of massage on muscle recovery as a function of therapist education in participants who completed a 10-km running race.


METHODS
Race participants were offered a 12- to 15-min massage immediately post-event. Participants were randomly assigned to a student therapist with either 450, 700, or 950 h of didactic training in massage. Muscle soreness was recorded by questionnaire using a 0- to 10-point visual scale at time points immediately before and after massage, and 24 and 48 h post-event. Eight hundred ninety-five subjects were recruited, with 317 subjects returning questionnaires from all time points.


RESULTS
Race participants who received massage from student therapists with 950 h of didactic training reported significantly greater improvement in muscle soreness across time compared with those who received massage from therapists with 700 or 450 h of education in massage (P < 0.01). On study entry, there was no difference in muscle soreness (P = 0.99), with a group mean of 4.4 +/- 0.4; at the 24-h measurement, soreness was 2.4 +/- 0.6, 3.7 +/- 0.5, and 3.6 +/- 0.9 for the 950-, 700-, and 450-h groups, respectively (P < 0.01).


CONCLUSIONS
Level of therapist training was shown to impact effectiveness of massage as a post-race recovery tool; greater reduction in muscle soreness was achieved by therapists with 950 h of training as opposed to those with 700 or 450 h.
Moraska
Albert
A
University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, 4200 East Ninth Avenue, Denver, CO 80262, USA. moraska@alum.rpi.edu
D000328:Adult; D003120:Colorado; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007866:Leg; D017116:Low Back Pain / Q000534:rehabilitation; D008297:Male; D008405:Massage / Q000193:education*; D018763:Muscle Fatigue; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012420:Running; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires