The Effect of Six Weeks of a Massage Program on Sub Skin Fat at Stomach Area
Document Type : Original Article
Abstract
This research aims to study the impact of massage on decreasing subcutaneous fat of the stomach area in non-sportsperson male university students. In order to do that, 16 non-sportsperson male students of the ages of 20 to 27 who were of good general health were chosen randomly to participate in the research. The thickness of subcutaneous fat of stomach area was measured using a SKIN FOLD Caliper (Made in Iran with American spring and measuring error of 0.5 millimeters), before and after the research. After the first measuring, all the participants were subjected to a 6-week massage program designed specifically for the stomach area, which included 5 sessions a week, 15 to 20 minutes of massage per session. Descriptive analysis was used to calculate mean values and standard deviation values of the age, weight, and height of the participants, and correlated t statistic method (p<0.05) was used to calculate the difference between subcutaneous fat values before and after the research. The results of the study showed that a 6-week massage program had an impact in decreasing subcutaneous fat of the stomach area of the participants and there was a significant difference between the mean values of subcutaneous fat of the participants before and after the massage program, at the level of p<0.05. Therefore, regarding that the results of this study confirm the role of a designed massage program in decreasing the subcutaneous fat of the stomach area, using massage as a method for increasing local metabolism, and as a result, for stimulating local fat burning, can be an effective method for decreasing local fats of stomach area.
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