Effects of Calf Muscle Massage on Normal calf muscles

NewsBot · Dec 6, 2015

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Deep soft-tissue massage applied to healthy
calf muscle has no effect on passive
mechanical properties: a randomized,
single-blind, cross-over study
Daniel Thomson, Amitabh Gupta, Jesica Arundell and Jack Crosbie
BMC Sports Science, Medicine, and Rehabilitation (2015) 7:21

Background: Massage is often applied with the intention of improving flexibility or reducing stiffness in
musculotendinous tissue. There is, however, a lack of supporting evidence that such mechanical effects
occur. The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of massage on the passive mechanical properties of the
calf muscle complex.
Methods: Twenty nine healthy volunteers aged between 18 and 45 years of age had their calf muscle compliance and
ankle joint dorsiflexion range of motion (ROM) measured using an instrumented footplate before, immediately and
30 minutes after a ten minute application of deep massage or superficial heating to the calf muscle complex. Repeated
measures analysis of variance was used to determine differences between testing sessions and the types of intervention.
Reliability testing for the measurement method was conducted using analysis of variance both within and between
testing sessions.
Results: There was no significant change in calf muscle stiffness or ankle dorsiflexion range of motion with or without
the application of calf massage. Inter- and intra-session reliability were very high, ICC > 0.88 (p < 0.001).
Conclusions: Although individuals? perception of a change in tissue characteristics following massage has been reported,
there was no evidence that soft tissue massage led to a change in the passive mechanical properties of the calf muscle
complex. The findings of this study suggest that the use of massage to increase tissue flexibility prior to activity is not
justified.
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