Effect of pre-event sports massage on speed.

摘要

Massage is one of the oldest existing therapies utilized within the medical community. The practice of massage has become more widespread as the modern era emerged with specific techniques being used to treat the respective body systems. The effect of massage on athletic performance is a controversial topic within sports medicine. Swedish massage is the technique widely used in current research, which is popularly know as a relaxation technique. Another technique is Pre-Event Sports Massage, which is utilized to stimulate the body prior to athletic performance. Little to no research has examined the effect of Pre-Event Sports Massage on athletic performance. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of Pre-Event Sports Massage (SP) versus Swedish massage (SW) on speed in collegiate sprinters. Twelve collegiate offseason male and in season female sprinters (19.4 +/- 1.16 years) completed maximal 40m sprints under three different conditions: baseline, SP, and SW. There was no main effect of massage on speed. There was a main effect of gender where men were significantly faster (baseline 4.97 +/- .12, Swedish massage 5.00 +/- .10, pre-event massage 4.97 +/.10) compared to women (baseline 5.61 +/- .18, Swedish Massage 5.67 +/- .19, pre-event massage 5.73 +/- .14). In conclusion, these results suggest that there was no effect of either Pre-Event Sports Massage or Swedish massage on speed. Additionally, there was no detriment to performance through the use of Pre-Event Sports Massage. Despite the lack of scientific based evidence, massage is popularly used in athletics. This study shows that the use of SP does not hinder athletic performance, and if massage is part of an athletic team's program, there may be a psychological benefit involved for those athletes. Further research is needed related to how different durations and styles of massage affects speed.