Massage

[Toadthewetsprocket]

Hi all!

How good's massage for training? what are your experiences regarding it. I've have had a few sessions recently and feels so good, but before I didn't think I needed it. I was also surprised by the masseuse when she said that I had my back muscles all tangled.

Is there a point in training when it becomes a must? I know Olympic athletes have massage sessions, but don't know if that's also applicable for intermediates or novices, or what the benefit ratio is? Do not having a massage hinder you at some point? or is just a luxury?

Thanks, I look forward to your comments

[ColoWayno]

Get as many as you can afford, but try to find someone with sports knowledge. Ask for deep tissue (I usually say deep, but not atomic).
I think a lot of masseuses don't understand what happens to the body as you get strong and think your muscles are "tight" or as yours said "tangled" up.
Every once in a while you'll get a nice compliment from one of the more knowledgeable ones as well.

EDIT: You should tell your masseuse that your muscles detach at one end at night while you are asleep so they can entangle each other, then reattach themselves. Then ask him/her to fix it.

[Wayne Riddle]

All I know is my back and sholders feel so much better after a massage.

[Carnivroar]

I've never had a massage, but I'm going for an acupuncture soon.

[LimieJosh]

I think any decent answer to this needs to be carefully clarified.

For a general trainee, with no issues, I dont see there being a real benefit from a general massage (meaning just your basic spa treatment).

On the complete other end of the spectrum, anyone dealing with a muscle injury will get tremendous benefit (both in terms of magnitude and speed of atainment) from sessions of ART, which can be consdered a specific form of massage I suppose.

There is a lot of room between those extremes for varying individual results. For example, my "girlfriend" grew up playing tennis at a very high level and frequently suffers aches associated with tremendous imbalances in her shoulder and back muscles. She expereinces considerable relief from her routine sessions, but that also took a lot of wasted time and money jumping around trying to find someone who knew what they were doing. Whereas my experience is that when done as an overall prehab type thing it provides significantly less benefit than SMF, and at considerably greater cost. I would be willing to accept success stories of others, but I think the difference in mileage will generally be dependent on the quality of the person providing the massage.

[MazdaMatt]

A couple weeks ago there was a "customer appreciation" day at my gym and as a marketting gig a local RMT was offering free massage. Nothing will make your day-after-deadlift-PR feel better than a good massage. She also worked on my lower quads and as soon as I took a few steps I could tell that I was walking easier than I have for months.

If you're a rich S.O.B, then you'd be an idiot not to get a good (painful) massage at LEAST once per week.

[Carnivroar]

If you live in a big city, check out Groupon. That's where I bought a 150$ acupuncture session for only 40$.

http://www.groupon.com/new-york/deals

I just missed a couple massage deals here in NYC. Damn!

[Toadthewetsprocket]

Thanks for your feedback! It looks like the benefits are not so clear cut. My guess is that it probably has an effect, but on a very long time. You won't know because what it does is avoiding a long run tightness that will really hurt and will stop you from training. Anyway, I'll give it a run for some time see how it goes (while there's some money). So far, the benefit probably is that I'm more aware of my muscles. I'm working harder on the stretches (checking out Pavel stuff) and also developing that feeling that the next thing better to a massage is another workout. I live in Europe BTW. But thanks for the tips.

[JM3]

Ive done massage for several years and worked on a lot of strong people, pros and advanced hobbyists etc- the feedback from those who get it regularly is that it doesnt so much enhance performance as stave off what would otherwise be chronic pains from training and possibly recurring injuries.
Its definately a viable recovery tool- and the key isnt so much "vicious" as it is thorough origin/insertion palpation. ART is basically the chiropractic answer to Orthopedic massage and is effective- but its' not exactly the same thing. A good Massage Therapist will be strong, knowledgable - but most of all thorough.
One tip- lots of my clients get their massages reimbursed through flexible medical spending accounts- if your job has one you can at least pay for them with pre tax money from that account.
Anyone who talks about your muscles being "tangled up" or in knots is just telling you that they dont know what muscles actually look like or do...

[homerj742]

JM3 posted some good advice. My massage therapist asked to see video to get a better understanding of my training and why certain muscles were, the way they were. She made adjustments to the sessions and was able to fix a lot of things (well pretty much everything). On top of that, she shared a lot of knowledge on how to care for myself between sessions.