Although massage had positive effects on DOMS, swelling,
and plasma CK activity, no significant protective effects occurred
against losses in muscle strength and ROM. These findings
are consistent with those of previous authors,12,13,15,16
who did not note beneficial effects of massage on either loss
or recovery of muscle function. It might be more important
for athletes and coaches to enhance recovery of muscle function
after eccentric exercise than reduce DOMS and swelling.
If this is the case, massage will not fulfill that purpose. Increasing
blood flow by massage to deliver oxygen and other
substances necessary for the regeneration of the damaged tissue
is apparently not effective enough. The actual physiologic
mechanisms by which massage could influence the regeneration process are obscure.
10 Our findings thus support the idea
that DOMS should be treated with caution as an indicator of
muscle damage and may be more associated with individual
responses to the sensations eliciting pain than the mechanisms
responsible for muscle injury per se. This possibility makes it
all the more important to consider such variations in the design
and interpretation of studies such as this one.