Massage=Junk Pseudo Science?!?

They make you feel better. That is tangible.

My advice to you young man is do not go back to that Doctor. Massage helps. That Dr is backward and I hope he isnt part of our church.

He's not a religious man!

I don't think that massage does all the things that the people at massage places will tell you (remove toxins, etc), but a massage will loosten you up and help you relax. It's not medicine and should not be treated as such, but it has it's place.

There's also a difference between getting a massage at a spa (basically a backrub) and a deep tissue massage. There's nothing remotely comfortable or relaxing about the latter; it's intense, physical pain. Personally, I feel it helps a great deal in, not only preventing injury, but recovering from it.

dean moriarty wrote:

I always suspected so, and I recently spoke to a doctor who said that massage was a bunch of bunk. He said, "It feels good, but it doesn't do a damn thing."

Runners and other athletes seem to be totally on board with the massage movement. I know that Goucher got massages in Running With the Buffaloes, and other top athletes swear by them, but do they really DO anything tangible?

dean moriarty wrote:

He said, "It feels good, but it doesn't do a damn thing."

You can also say the same thing about the majority of the drugs these quacks prescribe.

My favorite new ailment discovered by the drug companies and doctors is "restless leg syndrom" or RLS. Do you see that bullshit commercial on TV? Then morons see that and run to a Dr. like yours.

My training partner had a sore IT band. The Dr. had him getting MRI's, X-rays and physical therapy and it didn't get better. Then he got 2 massages that hurt like hell, and he's been running ever since the 3rd basically ended the problem.

Sounds like your Dr is a little insecure.

you're allowing your skepticism to take you outside of the area you know anything about. sure pharaceutical companies create medications that are only fractionally better at treating what they do for 10x the price, but not every medication produced is bunk. my mom suffered from RLS for years before the medication for it came out, all she was told to do was drink tonic water w/ quinine in it, since it was known to help, now there's a pill out there after taking it she's fine. For years she couldn't sleep for more than a few hours at a time b/c she would be woken up by the sensations in her legs, now, nothing. go ahead and ridicule, but don't ride the wave of skepticism to talk shit about things you know nothing about.

It's pretty obvious that massage helps treat certain conditions. Just ask anyone if their foam roller helped them with IT issues. Rolling on the foam roller = massage.

Hi Dean it's a new year, learn something...

Piezoelectric effect, Thixotropic effect; look it up on google

Happy ending massages have always help me. =) ... but now I have a rash

That was an excellent post but you didn't get back anything useful in response. Although personal anecdotal evidence is a good start it is not empirical. Almost any fad quackery treatment can produce of host of individuals who due to placebo effect will emphatically vouch for the treatments effectiveness; They are wrong in their perceptions.

With that point made, I want to be clear that I believe your physician has no real basis to say massages don't work. Massages are a complex issue. I personally believe that some type of deep tissue massage may be of benefit. My anecdotal evidence (of course its therefor suspect) involved receiving a deep tissue massage from a physical therapist to break up scar tissue in my hamstring. I believe it was called something like ASTM (Augmentative Soft Tissue Mobilization??) It took a number of sessions but it seemed to work. That of course was a specific type of massage to address a specific need. General sports massages are very different.

I would like to see some controlled studies examining the effects of massages on athletic performance.

I'll tell you what I know. For several years, (a while ago) I got massages weekly. They did not harm my running. They felt good. I liked talking to Sandy who told all the stories of the local running community. I wasn't injured during that time, but I wasn't training at PR level either. So, above all I know massage does no harm.

Does massage do any good? I have been trying to devise a double blind study, but I can't figure out how you can have someone give a massage with out knowing it to some one who doesn't know if he is getting a real massage or a placebo massage.

Massage is nice. They feel good. At least afterwards. But how do I know about the injuries I didn't get or if the injury that went away would have gone regardless of the massage?

Maybe placebo massages would be cheaper?

Tom

ART (active release therapy) is more like what goucher got...and it is very effect at fixing issues with soft tissue.

If you read the Cochrane reviews on massage, you will find that it actually does pretty well when you look at the best of the randomized trials that studied it- though it depends on what you are using it for. For low back pain, it ends up looking as decent as most other interventions.

I think massage helps. I started getting massages after going to PT for an injury and basicly paying big money for what amouted to a deep tissue massage.

As long as you don't buy into the "negative energy" or crap like that, I don't see any harm.

Okay, just a little anecdotal evidence!

I raced over a tough British XC course with an existing but at the time mildish quadricep problem with my vastus medialis. That evening in an attempt to help the quadricep I did some pretty intensive self massage not only on the muscle involved (vastus medialis right by the knee), but also the rest of the quad muscles. The next day the unaffected leg that hadn't been massaged had some DOMS, the massaged but injured leg was fresh as a daisy.

Perhaps overcompensated and so gace the affected leg an easy ride, but difference between levels of muscle soreness was startling, particularly when hte only difference had been a massage

Simple, have the the treatment group get massages by professional sports masseuse and have the control group get massages done by someone with no training. The problem is getting a large enough sample size and deciding what your outcome variables will be.

Not a scientific study by any means, but when I get a massage from the local masseuse, I feel warm, relaxed and nice. When I get a "sports, deep tissue massage" I feel as if I have the flu for the next 3-4 days. It has happened the last 4 or 5 times and I won't do it again.

Massage has helped speed recovery from ankle sprains and backache, but for some reason, I can't tolerate deep tissue.

Good thread. I've often wondered about the claim that massage therapy flushes toxins from the body and that you need to drink alot of water after in order to make sure the process is complete. What are these toxins and where has it been shown that massage flushes them out? The other claim is that massage breaks down scar tissue that feel like hard knots in your leg. What study has shown that these knots are really scar tissue?

I've had many massages and feel that they have some benefit. But I would love to see some scientific evidence to back up these claims. It would open the door for insurance companies to pay for them. Currently, some medical flex spending plans will cover the cost of massage therapy if an MD refers you to a massage therapist. The problem is that most MDs aren't going to refer you because there isn't sufficient evidence to back up the claim that it's effective therapy.