Sometimes if a muscle is sore (after a light workout/ day at work) a massage feels good, but other times (heavy workout or injuries) touching the muscle just hurts more.
What is the physical mechanism behind a good massage?
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This will probably not be well received, because people get very grouchy about their preferred alternative medicine, but most studies suggest massages work really well because of….. the placebo effect. That’s about it.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29620922/#:~:text=Conclusions%3A%20Reiki%20and%20massage%20clinically,considered%20to%20validate%20the%20data.
A fun study which compared getting a massage to a reiki treatment (scientifically speaking, reiki is a ‘no touch’ treatment in which someone waves their hands directly over your body for a little while). Both were about equally effective.
The placebo effect basically says “if you think something will help, it will help symptoms, especially in the short term”. Good Physiotherapists absolutely believe massage uses this mechanism (but also think there are others at play) and in fact try to maximize the effect since it has a very real effect on outcomes.
People are going to talk about blood flow, circulation, pressure affecting muscles, pumping blood / relieving acid build up, releasing tension, and all kinds of physical reasons why it ‘works’. None of that has really good evidence to support whether it actually affects outcomes beyond the placebo effect at play (which we don’t really understand either). Massages can also negatively effect health outcomes, especially if the issue involves cysts, actual injury, or serious inflammation (pressure on hurt things can shockingly make injuries worse).
But to your original question of why does it feel good? We seem to get relief and soothing effects (release of good chemicals in the old brain) from most perceived positive touch (scratches, massage, someone kissing an injury, a hug, etc), and pressure does often mask pain receptor signals so it can provide instant pain relief while you are getting it.
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