Massage can help after a workout, but not for the reason you think

Massage isn’t just for upscale spas that serve cucumber water. For many amateur and professional athletes, it’s an extension of their training programme.

- CHRISTIE ASCHWANDEN

Running races frequently feature massage stations, many high-end gyms offer post-workout rub downs and most elite sports teams have a massage therapist on staff. The massage gun market is estimated at over half-a-billion dollars, according to several market research firms, led by dozens of companies, like Theragun, Ekrin and Mebak. But most exercisers don’t need much convincing.

"If you talk to athletes, massage is one of their favourite recovery strategies," said Shona Halson, a professor of exercise science at Australian Catholic University. "And we all know why — because it feels good. It’s obviously doing something that athletes perceive as beneficial."

There is no question that massage can make you feel better in the short term and a lot of people find that it and foam rolling can ease muscle knots and even increase flexibility. And as an athlete, I've found that massage almost always makes me feel better after a race or hard workout.

But as a science journalist, I've long wondered what it’s actually doing to my body. So I dug into the studies and talked to researchers who have investigated it. Here's what they said.

WHAT MASSAGE DOES FOR THE BODY

One of the most common claims about the benefits of massage is that it helps with recovery by improving blood flow and flushing out lactic acid, a chemical once blamed for muscle soreness after hard exercise.