Immunological effects of massage after exercise: A systematic review

• Massage modulates immune parameters after exercise, facilitating the recovery after high-intensity exercise.
• The timing of massage after physical activity may also play an important role in its immunological effects.
• High-quality but preliminary evidence supports the possibility that massage exerts immunological effects.

ObjectiveThe objective of this review was to determine whether immune parameters can be modulated by massage after intense physical activity.MethodsA search was conducted in Pub Med Medline, PEDro, and Cochrane databases, using the key words: “massage”, “myofascial release”, “acupressure”, “recovery”, and “warm up” combined with “exercise”, “exercise-induced muscle damage”, “sport”, “immunology”, and lymphocytes” independently. Only controlled studies published between 1970 and 2012 were selected, with no restrictions regarding publication language. The CONSORT Declaration was applied to assess the quality of the selected studies.ResultsThe initial search identified 739 publications in the databases, of which only 5 met the review inclusion criteria. A positive relationship between immunological recovery and post-exercise massage was reported by some of these studies but not by others.ConclusionThere is preliminary evidence that massage may modulate immune parameters when applied after exercise, but more research is needed to confirm this possibility.