Effects of Percussion Massage Therapy on Neuromuscular Recovery From Eccentric Exercise-Induced Muscle Damage

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of percussion massage intervention on neuromuscular function and performance recovery from eccentric exercise-induced muscle damage. Twenty healthy and physically active volunteers underwent an elbow flexion eccentric exercise protocol (6 sets of 10 repetitions with 80% of the concentric one-repetition maximum) with their nondominant arms. The indirect markers of muscle damage (muscle soreness, elbow flexion range of motion, upper arm circumference, elbow flexion isometric strength along with voluntary activation percentage, and resting twitch) were measured before, immediately, and 24, 48, and 168 hours after the eccentric exercise. The subjects were randomly assigned to either (a) percussion massage group (Percussion, n = 10): received 5 minutes of percussion massage treatment at the end of the eccentric exercise visit, the end of 24 hours, and the end of 48 hours after the exercise, or (b) control group (CON, n = 10): did not receive any treatment. Separate 2-way (time x group) mixed factorial analysis of variance tests were used to examine the potential changes of muscle damage indirect markers across time between groups. Significant main effects for time were observed in all dependent variables (p < 0.05); however, no interactions or group differences were found in any of these variables. Therefore, our study suggests that using percussion massage does not accelerate recovery after high-intensity muscle damaging eccentric exercise.