EFFECT OF MASSAGE ON RECOVERY AFTER AN EXERCISE

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine whether massage has an effect on recovery after high intensity exercise. 20 male volunteer students (age 23.00 ± 2.99 years) attending the Faculty of Sports Sciences were participated the study. Repeated vertical jump test (DST) was applied 30 seconds with one week intervals as an anaerobic exercise. Ten randomly selected subjects first recovered after DST without massaging the legs, while the other 10 subjects recovered by massage. A week later; the subjects recovered without massage were recovered by massage, while the subjects who were massaged were recovered without massage. The resting heart rate (HR) values of the athletes were taken before DST, and then subjected to the DST test. Recovery of the subjects was followed up for 15 minutes after the test. HR measurements were recorded every minute of recovery. Shapiro Wilk test was used to check whether the data showed normal distribution and parametric statistical analysis was used because data sets are normally distributed. Paired t test was used for the pairwise comparison. HR values at 1st and 2nd minutes of massage recovery after anaerobic exercise were lower than non-massage recovery HR values (p<0.05). Recovery by massaging reduced HR faster and accelerated recovery. Massage recovery values up to 5 minutes of recovery are lower, although not statistically significant. Between the 2nd and the 15th minutes of the recovery, HR values did not differ statistically (p>0.05). As a conclusion, when massage is performed, recovery occurs faster in the first 5 minutes after exercise. This result shows that starting massage immediately after exercise accelerates recovery.