Those of you who have had massages know that they can help ease your sore, aching muscles, but now researchers have found clear benefits to post-exercise massage. Just don’t believe the “it releases toxins and reduces lactic acid buildup”–that’s a load of bunk, although a good massage does promote muscle recovery.

As we all know, exercise tears muscle fibers, which explains the soreness you feel after those long, intense workout sessions. Massage stimulates the body to release chemical signals that reduce inflammation and promotes muscle cell repair. Check out the article to read about how the study was conducted–researchers used a group of healthy young men and made them cycle to the point of exhaustion (something our coaches have made us do all too often!), then massaged one of each participant’s legs and studied the effects.

For those of you who are putting in some serious training hours for your ‘A’ race this year, you may want to consider booking regular massages to help with recovery and to repair those broken down muscle fibers. Our team massage therapist, Liam Buell, is available for appointments and he has extensive experience working with athletes (both professional and amateur). Keep your body healthy and it’ll repay you on race day!