Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/969285
A B M P m e m b e r s e a r n F R E E C E a t w w w. a b m p . c o m / c e b y r e a d i n g M a s s a g e & B o d y w o r k m a g a z i n e 49 I went to massage school in 2001 with the intention of getting my credentials and working with my parents, who led bicycle tours across the United States. My plan was to provide massage to my parents' tour clients after they rode 60–110 miles per day and start a career that would have me working with cyclists whose knots I would ease and whose performance I would help improve. Clearly that didn't become my path, thanks to a chance meeting in a grocery store right before I finished massage school (that's a story for another time), but it does help explain why this edition's highlighted research article stood out to me for the Somatic Research column. With the 2018 Winter Olympics and Paralympics behind us, some of us are already thinking about the 2020 Summer Games and the 2020 participant hopefuls who are gearing up for a long and intense training cycle. Massage therapy has long been thought to enhance athletic performance, whether it be applied between exercise bouts, in preparation for an event, or postevent for recovery benefit. 1 While a lot of research exists on massage for sports performance, these studies are often choked with inconclusive outcomes, small sample sizes, or outcomes that, while potentially physiologically or psychologically meaningful to the athlete, do not meet the statistical significance often sought in peer- reviewed literature. A recent editorial in the British Journal of Sports Medicine highlights some of the emerging evidence for massage and postexercise recovery, including massage's reduction of inflammatory cells and agents, as well as reduction of tissue damage. 2 Much of the research highlighted in the editorial are animal studies, but the authors point to the importance of human studies and the need for research examining multiple rounds of massage sessions and usage over athletes' training seasons. 3 Researchers out of the University of South Carolina anticipated this research literature gap with their recently published study that looks at multiple massage therapy sessions over the course of a training cycle in elite cyclist athletes. 4 In addition, this study addresses another gap in the related literature by focusing on disabled athletes training for Rio's 2016 Paralympics; prior to now, virtually no research specific to massage for disabled athletes was available. The massage for paracyclists study used a mixed-methods research design, meaning they collected both quantitative (numbers, measures, scales, and counts) and qualitative (words, comments, notes, and open-answer responses) data to understand how a long- term massage therapy program administered over the course of an Olympic training cycle affected quality of life, function and performance goals, stress, sleep, and pain. A unique feature of this study was that participants resided and trained in various states from coast to coast and were able to identify a practicing massage therapist of their choice to provide the allotted massage treatments, given the therapist was willing to complete study training, follow the study protocol, and complete and submit study- specific data collection (i.e., assessment and treatment notes). The article is open access, meaning anyone can read it, but I'll briefly outline the methods used and the outcomes before highlighting some discussion points and practice-relevant implications. STUDY METHODOLOGY The study began in January 2015 and ran through August 2016, allowing for up to 18 months of study time. Participants were to receive one massage per week for the first month for what the study team termed a loading phase. After those first four weekly massages, participants were to receive a massage every other week until the end of the study. The approach intended to both reflect real-world practice and to minimize related time burden. Study duration (18 months or less) varied for participants depending on when they joined the study. Five guiding massage session protocols were developed for study therapists to integrate into their clinical massage treatment delivery, based on a study-specific intake assessment survey that included participant session goals: (1) general relaxation, (2) muscle relaxation, (3) combined general and muscle relaxation, (4) injury rehabilitation, and (5) injury rehabilitation integrated into general and muscle relaxation. Study outcomes were: quality of life as measured by the modified SF-36 for nonambulatory individuals; stress, sleep, and muscle tightness; pain; and spasticity measured with a 10-point scale. Data were collected at pre- and one-day posttreatment for the first, 14th, and final massage session. Additionally, qualitative data were derived from massage intake and completion forms, treatment notes, a study exit questionnaire, and feedback emails. Thirteen paracyclists participated in the study overall, with seven men and two women completing enough of