A Light "Cool Down" Exercise Session May Be As Useful As Massage

Dr. Lars Andersen of the (Danish) National Research Center for the Working Environment in Copenhagen speculated that massage, while definitely useful in relieving pain after workouts, might not be the best way to relieve pain after a heavy exercise session. He recruited 20 women to do shoulder exercises on a resistance machine similar to those one would see in any modern gym.

Using Massage and Stretching Exercise After Training the Trapezius

The women who participated in the study did an exercise that involves shrugging the shoulders while pressing against a resistance band, an exercise that specifically works out the trapezius muscle. The workout involved eccentric exercise, which is not a workout along the lines of extreme ironing or putting on a glider suit and jumping off Mount Everest, but rather just using the muscles to push away from the body, in this case increasing circulation to the muscles in the process.

The resistance was chosen to cause exhaustion of the muscle after just 10 repetitions, so that the women were almost certain to experience muscle pain after the workout was completed. And cause muscle pain it did, with the women rating, on average, their muscle pain at 0.8 on a scale of 1 to 10 before the workout and 5.0 on a scale of 1 to 10 when they came back to the lab two days later.

At the second session, the women participating in the study were given a therapeutic massage on one shoulder, or they were asked to perform a mild, stretching exercise for the other shoulder. Some women were asked to do the stretching exercise first, and some were given the therapeutic massage first. Ten minutes later, the women were asked to rate their pain in both shoulders.

Exercise Ever-So-Slightly Better for Pain Relief in One Study

On average, the women in Dr. Andersen's study reported that the stretching exercise reduced their pain by 0.8 units on a scale of 0 to 10 and the therapeutic massage reduced their pain by 0.7 units on a scale of 0 to 10. These results, Andersen opines, indicate that exercise is as beneficial as massage for treating post-workout pain.

Personally, I would interpret the study as confirming that both methods work fairly well, and both are better than either doing nothing or popping painkillers to reduce post-workout pain and sore muscles. Dr. Andersen's method of measuring pain relief was purely subjective, whereas the McMaster University study involved tissue samples. Dr. Andersen in Denmark worked with female volunteers, and Dr. Tarnopolksy in Canada worked with male volunteers. Dr. Andersen invited his test subjects to get treatment for their pain two days after their workout, and Dr. Tarnopolsky arranged for his test subjects to receive a massage immediately after their workouts.

But the bottom line of both studies seems to be, if you can't afford sports massage, stretching over the next day or two will also help. But if you can, it's a nice way to relax and a good way to support your muscle gains while preventing discomfort after an intense workout.