Great! Solid scientific evidence showing how massage therapy is good for your muscles, at the cellular, molecular level.
This Canadian group, led by Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky, studied the effects of massage therapy on the quadriceps of young healthy young men with exercise-induced muscle damage.
Talking muscle biopsies from each subject's massaged leg, and comparing with tissues from his unmassaged leg, Tarnopolsky and his team found that massage therapy reduced the production of inflammation related proteins like TNFa and IL6, and the activity of HSP27, thereby ameliorating the stress on the cells due to muscle fiber injuty.
Moreover, massage also reportedly helps cells recover by boosting amounts PGC-1alpha, which encourages production of new mitochondria —organelles inside cells that are crucial for muscle energy generation and adaptation to endurance exercise.
Interestingly, this study reported no effect of massage on lactic acid concentrations, overthrowing a common belief that massage eases pain by helping the body clear away lactic acid buildup after exercise.
Ahhhhh....
Love it when science justifies all that money that I have spent on massages and spas... :D
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| Picture from Spa ESPA |
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