One of the first articles I wrote several years back took a look at some of the research being done into sports massage. At the time many of the research papers struggled to demonstrate the benefits being advertised by sports massage therapists, namely: increase in circulation, removal of lactic acid and an improvement in performance. Research is currently starting to demonstrate benefits in sports massage, but not as previously thought. Benefits are felt indeed and some times it's tough to pin point the feeling of change and to describe what feels different.
Much of the change we notice after a treatment is starting to show up in the fascia research coming onto the market. I hope to cover more of this over time. Below is an excerpt from the Runners World article.. At the time much of what I was questioning has changed as new information comes to light, however one of the key elements still shows through in many of the research papers, namely research is not always carried out in way we do sports massage and the research papers which have been able to demonstrate the benefits of sports massage undertook their research over an extended treatment period. We now know the adaptation time and change within tissue is not an overnight process and requires more than a one off treatment.
