however, most of the evidence is
anecdotal. Research in the field of sports massage has been
flawed by many methodological variations and poor experimental
control during the test phase including: inconsistent
massage duration, no standardisation of warm up, absence of
a period of active recovery when comparing massage with
other interventions, and often no standardisation of physical
activity/work performed preceding the massage. The literature
does, to some extent, support psychological benefits
from massage,1 but physiological and performance benefits
have never been consistently observed.2 Cafarelli and Flint3
suggested that, in a practical setting, massage could show
performance improvements, but lack of control would
devalue the results. Given that the beneficial effects of active
recovery after intense exercise are well established,4–6
research on the effect of massage on recovery of muscle
function should include active recovery of some sort in all
phases of the experimental design. To date, only one study
has adopted this type of design in an attempt to tease out any
potential benefits of massage combined with active recovery
versus active recovery alone or massage alone.7 These
findings indicate a beneficial effect of a 15 minute combined
intervention, compared with active recovery or massage
alone, on performance in repeated 5 km cycling time trials
(approximately 6.5 minutes of effort before and after the
intervention). These data provide some evidence for the
beneficial effects of massage when combined with a short
active recovery process; however, the massage was short
(7.5 minutes), confined to the calf or hamstrings, and no
indication of massage protocol or diet/activity control was
provided. Furthermore, the main emphasis for an effect of
massage in recovery from exercise is focused on improvements
in blood flow and lactate clearance.3 Therefore it
appears that there is a need for a controlled study
incorporating certain aspects of a practical setting (inclusion
of a short active recovery period), a more suitable length of
massage (20–30 minutes), and greater experimental control
(preceding diet and exercise), to assess the potential benefits
of massage on lactate clearance and subsequent high
intensity exercise capacity/performance. Furthermore, the
literature on the role of massage in increasing blood flow or
lactate clearance is equivocal,7–10 raising a question as to the
precise role of massage in short term recovery. Therefore the
aim of this work was to examine the effects of leg massage
compared with passive recovery on lactate clearance, muscular
power output, and fatigue characteristics after repeated
high intensity cycling exercise, with the conditions before the
intervention well controlled and standardised.