Messed up Calf wrote:
So apparently I have some kind of soft tissue injury (inflammation). It gets a bit better everyday but it is impossibly stiff to run on. Anyway I’m considering getting a massage but does it actually help? Has anyone ever had an injury go away from massage or is massage mainly just prevention ?
Massage isn’t primarily for prevention. It can provide pain relief for some in some cases. It is particularly effective for stiff muscles. It is thought to work via: (1) reducing stiffness via pressure (like kneading dough): (2) increasing blood flow thereby increasing nutrient supply; (3) something about being touched by another human (or even an animal) that is universally known to make us feel better.
Massage is not thought to have healing properties, i.e., curing the cause of most inflammations. Most people will tell you they feel much better after a massage. Even if it’s a placebo, if it works, it works. Also keep in mind that it is near impossible to actually do a randomized trial with a placebo group for testing massage effectiveness because it is not possible to do something fake that gets the patient to believe they are being massaged. So all we can do is to compare those who received a massage against those who didn’t get any treatment or got an alternate treatment.
