'Massage's Mystery Mechanism Unmasked'

[Kai]

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/02/massages-mystery-mechanism-unmas.html?ref=hp

Mark Tarnopolsky, a neurometabolic researcher at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, was one of those physicians—until he suffered a severe hamstring injury in a waterskiing accident 4 years ago. Massage therapy was part of his rehabilitation regimen, and it was so effective at easing his pain that he became determined to track down the mechanism that made him feel so good. "I thought there has to be a physiologic basis for this," he says. "And being a cellular scientist, my interest's in the cellular basis."

So Tarnopolsky and colleagues—including the coordinator of his rehab program—recruited 11 young men willing to exercise in the name of science. The subjects underwent a grueling upright cycling session that left their muscles damaged and sore. Ten minutes after their workout, a massage therapist massaged one of their legs. Meanwhile, the researchers took tissue samples from the volunteers' quadriceps muscles—once before the workout, once 10 minutes after the massage, and once 3 hours after the workout—and compared the genetic profiles of each sample.

The researchers detected more indicators of cell repair and inflammation in the post-workout samples than in the pre-workout samples. That didn't surprise them because scientists know that exercise activates genes associated with repair and inflammation. What did shock them were the clear differences between the massaged legs and the unmassaged ones after exercise. The massaged legs had 30% more PGC-1alpha, a gene that helps muscle cells build mitochondria, the "engines" that turn a cell's food into energy. They also had three times less NFkB, which turns on genes associated with inflammation.

The results, published online today in Science Translational Medicine, suggest that massage suppresses the inflammation that follows exercise while promoting faster healing. "Basically, you can have your cake and eat it too," Tarnopolsky says. He adds that the study found no evidence to support often-repeated claims that massage removes lactic acid, a byproduct of exertion long blamed for muscle soreness, or waste products from tired muscles.

This is really cool research with physiological evidence supporting the use of massage therapy after muscle injury or even heavy exercise. And out with this lactic acid crap that people blame for muscle soreness. It's a byproduct of anaerobic metabolism, and it only sticks with you short term. The soreness is actual injury to the muscle tissue, which is then strengthened during repair.

[Elder Iptuous]

Interesting!
thanks for the link, Kai.
my wife (massage therapist par excellence) will be interested to read this.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Correct me if I'm wrong here but I always thought lactic acid was the sharp burning pain you get when maxing out, during a workout and the dull throbby pain the day after was the damaged muscles.

I think this is what you said here but maybe you're saying lactic acid is a myth? Or is it just that lactic acid the next day is a myth?

[Kai]

Correct me if I'm wrong here but I always thought lactic acid was the sharp burning pain you get when maxing out, during a workout and the dull throbby pain the day after was the damaged muscles.

I think this is what you said here but maybe you're saying lactic acid is a myth? Or is it just that lactic acid the next day is a myth?

No, you read me right, and yes, lactic acid the next day is the myth. Or at least, that lactic acid buildup is the cause of pain days (or even hours) after maxing out.