If you’re lifting heavy, it’s going to take a toll on your muscles. It’s one of the reasons why rest days, nutrition, and hydration are so important. But sometimes that’s just not enough to support muscle recovery between workouts. If you are feeling muscle soreness or tightness days after a workout, massage therapy can help.
Heavy lifting takes a toll
Over the last couple of months, I’ve been lifting heavy and hitting my chest hard with incline cable flyes, dumbbell chest flyes, more bench press work and other lifts.
When I started noticing tightness in my chest, I knew it was time to increase my massage therapy sessions again. Once a month might work for some people, but I feel better with two massage therapy sessions a month when I increase the intensity level of my training.
A lot of people associate massage therapy with relaxation. And that’s certainly a benefit. But there are a number of other reasons why massage therapy can help you when you’re lifting weights, building muscle, and training hard.
1. Improve flexibility
For every lift you do in the gym (bicep curls, shoulder press, squat, leg press, or whatever), you should always use a full range of motion. It’s the best way to build muscle, strength, and endurance, and avoid developing an injury. But you need flexibility to do this.
Static stretching and foam rolling (also called self-myofascial release) can lengthen muscles and release knots and adhesions that limit flexibility. I include stretching recommendations to all clients. Massage therapy can help with flexibility, too.
In a recent study published in the Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, researchers found that three minutes of massage therapy helped improve flexibility in tight hamstrings. The same technique can be used to improve flexibility for other muscles. “This technique may prove beneficial and effective for athletic trainers, massage therapists and physical therapists who are looking for a modality that quickly and efficiently helps restore flexibility to tight musculature,” said lead researcher Dr Jeffrey Forman.
2. Increase circulation
Your muscles grow after your workout in the gym is over. You grab a post-workout meal, hit your protein goal, and drink plenty of fluids. And your body starts rebuilding and repairing the muscle damage from your workout with increased blood flow. Researchers at the University of Illinois wanted to find out if massage therapy could help increase circulation and speed recovery. They were able to measure increases in blood flow for people who received massage therapy after a leg press workout, compared to people who did the same leg press workout but didn’t get a massage.
The massage therapy group also reported a decrease in muscle soreness 90 minutes after a massage, while the exercise-only group still had muscle soreness 24 hours after the workout.
3. Improve sleep
When one of my clients isn’t making progress, I start looking at all the different variables that might be getting in the way. The cause is usually linked to the client’s workouts, nutrition, hydration, or stress. But there’s another variable that comes up frequently that can prevent you from making gains: lack of sleep.
When you’re sleeping, your body releases human growth hormone to help repair and rebuild muscle damage after working out using available protein. But if you’re not getting at least 7 hours of sleep a night, you’re missing out on some of those benefits. Fortunately, research shows that massage therapy can improve sleep quality and duration, to help you recover after working out.
4. Speed recovery
Hit a workout hard, and you’re probably going to experience delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), typically 1 to 3 days after your workout. It’s a sign the muscles you trained have experienced the kind of muscle damage needed to promote growth. But if you’re too sore after a workout, it might interfere with your next training session.
Here’s another reason to book a massage therapy session. It helps speed recovery and heal damaged muscles.
Massage can produce mechanical pressure, which is expected to increase muscle compliance resulting in increased range of joint motion, decreased passive stiffness and decreased active stiffness (bio mechanical mechanisms). Mechanical pressure might help to increase blood flow by increasing the arteriolar pressure, as well as increasing muscle temperature from rubbing.
Tip: If you don’t want to spend money on a massage 1 to 3 times a month, at least use a foam roller after training to help speed recovery and manage DOMS.
