With the spring feelings in full force, and summer fitness goals fresh in everyone’s minds, the gym may have had a few more participants this last month. And if you aren’t a regular gym goer, or you’ve pushed yourself further these last few weeks, your muscles may be feeling a little bit sore now. 

Everybody knows what muscles are. They’re the fibrous, flexible tissue that contracts and extends, allowing you to move around. But why do they get sore when you exercise? And what can you do to lessen the impact?

Muscles are made of cells that line up into fibres, which, depending on the muscle, run in bundles a certain way to allow certain movements. The fibre bundles in your biceps, for example, all run from your shoulder to your elbow, so that you can move your wrist towards your shoulder. But the fibres in your pecs fan out from your shoulder joint and connect either to your collar bone or sternum (breastbone). This fan shape allows the pecs to lift your arms up, down, and pull them across your body. When you exercise, these fibres get tiny little tears in them due to the strain put on your body. How hard you exercise will affect how many of these micro tears you get. You may feel the pain from these tears as soon as you finish your workout. But it’s more likely that it will be the day or two afterwards that the full effects of the tears will present itself. This pain, in the day or two following exercise, is known as Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, or DOMS for short.

The skeletal muscle, a muscle attached to a bone, is bundles of these long fibres of cells, used to move your body around in the direction your brain tells it to go. Image source: https://bigpictureeducation.com/closer-look-skeletal-muscles-muscle-fibres

High performance exercise also produces lactic acid as a byproduct of the energy produced by the high demand placed on your body. If enough oxygen isn’t available for energy production, then lactic acid becomes a part of the waste during energy production. There have long been rumours that massage assists in the clearance of lactic acid, and given that massage increases blood and lymph flow, it sounds as though this could be correct. However, with high intensity exercise, blood flow and lymph flow are already increased due to movement (lymph) and increase in heart rate (blood), so that could indicate that this theory is invalid. 

In a 2005 study done at the University of Essex, a team of researchers looked at the effects of massage on post high intensity workout recovery. Massage by itself did not have a significant impact as the capillaries would already be functioning at full volume following the workout. However, massage accompanied by active recovery, such warm down exercises, did significantly assist in the decrease of lactate (lactic acid) in the blood stream. So massage, alongside other techniques, has the potential to assist in the removal of lactic acid, but is limited to assisting other techniques, such as warming down.

Increasing your workout intensity can lead to sore muscles and more lactic acid in your blood flow. Massage can assist both of those conditions.

The biggest impact that massage can have on the body to assist in muscle recovery post workout is for DOMS. The effects of DOMS can be lessened by massage, specifically deep tissue massage. Muscles tense up during exercise to assist in the load bearing required to complete the activities being done. Getting a massage in the days following a big workout will assist in recovery from DOMS, as it gives the muscles a chance to relax.

For those with chronic muscular pain, such as tension due to bad posture, or recovery from surgery, with related muscle compensation patterns, massage affects the muscles by increasing the blood flow and reducing the tension within those locked up muscles. Deep tissue massage is the most effective with this, as the pressure from the therapist, plus the benefits of relaxation during a massage session, encourages the muscle fibres to release from their tensed position and return to their natural state. This relieves the tension and pressure from the muscles surrounding the trigger point, as it allows everything to function as it should.

So whether your health goals this spring are to increase your fitness, or get relief from ongoing pain, your muscles will benefit from massage, for recovery from DOMS or merely to help get them moving properly again. 

Now your turn! I’d love to hear from you. What are your health goals for spring? Do you have any muscles that aren’t acting as they should?

Source: Micklewright, D., Sellens, M., Gladwell, V., Beneke, R., 2006, ‘Blood lactate removal using combined massage and active recovery’, Biology of Sport, vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 315-325, [3rd October, 2019]