What happens to your muscles during and after a massage?
In: Biology
No one has provided an adequate answer so lemme give it a show.
Massage is the application of pressure and movement to heal the muscles of the body by releasing the built up tension from use to increase blood flow to the area.
Think of your muscles like a rubber band, and think of the fibers that comprise that rubber band to be made of rails with locking teeth that slide against each other. As you flex, the rails slide across each other and lock into position. When you relax the muscle, the teeth disengage and the pull from the opposite extensor should theoretically pull the flexor back to normal. This is why full range of motion exercises are so important. Don’t cheat your pushup or bench press by limiting the range of motion to only a few inches of a push. Sometimes, the teeth don’t fully disengage so when you have some fibers still partially engaged it creates pain (knots). A massage therapist goes in and manually separates the fibers through different techniques. Our muscles only apply pulling force on our bones, and thus why you should massage from the insertion (furthest muscle connection) to the origin (closest muscle connection). Pulling and compressive force is great for breaking out the locked fibers and allowing them to recalibrate. This is massively important for muscle health because the tension present in a muscle continues building lactic acid as oxygen gets blocked out of those sections of muscle. Lactic Acid burns the cells and oxygen (and the resulting minerals from the blood) allows them to recover faster. Use lacrosse balls or foam rollers for adequate results, but the unique part of massage is your ability to relax during it. Massage offers the unique part of being able to pull the muscle fibers apart while in a relaxed position. Flexing your muscles while getting a massage yields pain since you are fighting the attempt to pull the muscle apart with your mind, and why its more efficient than foam rolling.
TL:DR: Muscles are pulleys that sometimes get stuck. Massage is the manual unsticking.
Latest Answers