How much does massage aid recovery?

Expert Discussion Recovery and Regeneration
1

I am curious as to how much massage speeds recovery? Would you say it reduces recovery time by 30-40% compared to athletes who use no form of massage?
Massage isnt available to me so my only methods of recovery are contrast showers (once a day) and tempo. Should I adjust the frequency/intensity of my workouts to relfect this?
I did speed and weights yesterday (it was an awesome session) but I feel really cooked today. I do not think I will be recovered enough by tomorrow to run hills and do more weights.

If I had access to massage this morning and did tempo tonight running hills tomorrow would be no problem.

Just wondering if any of you guys have factored this into your training schedule? I am thinking about tempo tonight and taking tomorrow off. Run hills/weights on Sunday.

cheers,
Chris

2

chris don’t forget that ice-baths can decrease inflammation thus aiding recovery and you can also elevate the legs which is very good for flushing the toxants out.try to get a rub down once a week to make sure all is ok.

3

we had this argument/discussion before… if you had a choice of massage 3X per week, would you take them after the hard/speed/spike sessions, or on the easy days/tempo sessions?