Comparing the Effects of Massage and Rest on Fatigue and Strength Recovery Following Exhaustive Concentric Contraction

Document Type : Original Article

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was comparing the effects of massage and rest on fatigue and recovery 
of strength following exhaustive concentric contraction.
Material and Methods: In this research, 10 subjects (age 20.7 ± 0.94 yrs, body mass 59.5 ± 5.89 kg, height 
173 ± 3.6 cm ,body mass index 20.5 ± 1.37 m/cm 2 ) from 60 male, non-athlete students of Ferdowsi 
University of Mashhad, participated voluntarily and based on the specific inclusion/exclusion criteria of the 
study. The subjects participated in two testing sessions during a week (with an interval of 48 hours between the 
first and second session). 
Subjects did warm-up at the beginning of each session. In the first session, maximum strength of quadriceps
was measured by leg extension machine. In the second session (the rest session) the participants initially did
exhausting concentric contractions with 50% of their maximum strength after the warm-up, then quadriceps 
muscle strength was measured before and after 6 minutes of rest, using evaluation instrument of isometric 
strength in 90 degree knee angle. In the third session the participants received classical massage techniques
instead of resting for 6 minutes. The data regarding fatigue and strength recovery, between passive rest and 
massage sessions have been analyzed using paired sample t-test. All the data analyses were done using SPSS 
software. P <0/05 was considered as significant. 
Results: The results of t-test indicated a significant difference in the average rate of recovery from fatigue
(pre= 0.812 , post= 0.002) and muscle strength (pre= 0.150, post= 0.000) between pre and post-tests 
following the passive rest and massage sessions.
Discussion and Conclusion: Massage was an effective intervention for enhancing muscle performance and 
reducing fatigue but rest did not have such an effect. 

Keywords

• Massage
• Fatigue
• strength Recovery
• Concentric contraction

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