Massage / soft tissue work

Sports massage, foam rolling or manual therapy.

Recovery practices

Research records

Historical source snapshot. Not freshly verified, not a recommendation. Study findings, community accounts and app defaults are not interchangeable.

Publication suitability · 2026-10-15: Historical reference only; not a clinical verification. Clinical, regulatory, efficacy, safety and dose claims are not independently established by this review.

Massage / soft tissue work

Sports massage, foam rolling or manual therapy.

Evidence category: Systematic review. This describes the source category, not approval or certainty.

Regulatory statement in source: Not separately recorded; do not infer approval from the evidence category.

A systematic review of 20 trials found low-quality evidence that soft tissue massage improves pain, function and range of motion in non-specific shoulder pain in the short term. A meta-analysis of nine randomised trials with 404 patients found massage continued over several weeks improved pain, anxiety and depression in fibromyalgia, but not sleep. A meta-analysis of 18 randomised trials with 1,989 people found Chinese massage added to usual physiotherapy improved motor function and reduced spasticity after stroke. Study sizes are small and protocols vary.

Benefits reported in the imported source

Pooled trials show better pain, anxiety and depression in fibromyalgia when massage continues.
Pooled trials show better motor function and less spasticity after stroke, added to physiotherapy.
Low-quality evidence of short-term gains in shoulder pain, function and range of motion.

Risks and limits

The shoulder evidence was rated low quality and the gains were short-term.
Massage did not improve sleep disturbance in fibromyalgia.
Study sizes are small and protocols vary widely between trials.

Source bottom line: Massage shows modest pooled benefits for pain, mood and post-stroke motor function, on small varied trials.

Uncertainty: Reference information only. Not medical advice.

Study protocols — reports, not instructions

patients aged 18-80 with non-surgical, non-specific shoulder pain across 20 trials

Reported regimen: hands-on soft tissue massage applied locally to the shoulder, alone or with exercise, against placebo, minimal or no treatment
Duration: not stated
Reported outcome: Low-quality evidence of moderate short-term gains in active flexion and abduction range, pain and function; exercise improved pain only slightly and not function.
Source: Effectiveness of soft tissue massage and exercise for the treatment of non-specific shoulder pain: a systematic review with meta-analysis (van et al. 2014)

Claim provenance

evidence.json#/catalog:recovery:massage/protocols/0

404 patients with fibromyalgia across 9 randomised trials

Reported regimen: massage sessions of 25-90 minutes, 1-20 sessions in total, across trials running 1-24 weeks
Duration: 1 to 24 weeks; effects were significant only for massage lasting 5 weeks or more
Reported outcome: Massage of 5 weeks or more improved pain, anxiety and depression immediately after treatment, but did not improve sleep disturbance.
Source: Massage Therapy for Fibromyalgia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials (Kalichman and Vulfsons, 2010)

Claim provenance

evidence.json#/catalog:recovery:massage/protocols/1

1,989 stroke survivors across 18 randomised trials

Reported regimen: Chinese massage (Tuina) added to conventional physiotherapy, against conventional physiotherapy alone
Duration: not stated
Reported outcome: Upper-limb motor function improved in the subacute stage (mean difference 2.75 on Fugl-Meyer) and upper- and lower-limb spasticity fell on the modified Ashworth scale.
Source: The Effectiveness of Massage Therapy for Improving Sequelae in Post-Stroke Survivors. A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (Cabanas-Valdés et al. 2021)

Claim provenance

evidence.json#/catalog:recovery:massage/protocols/2

Community and practice descriptions

Accounts of a practice are not evidence of safety or effectiveness. Words such as “standard”, “safe” or “recommended” describe the source account, not verified consensus or this wiki’s advice. Commercial and self-published citations are retained for traceability, not vendor endorsement or independent clinical corroboration.

Unverified imported account — Post-Event Sports Massage - Massage Therapy Journal (AMTA)

An imported authored paraphrase, not a quotation or a recommended protocol.

Review: unverified historical account. The imported wording is preserved for attribution; its full clinical, dosing, efficacy or consensus claims have not been independently established. Described practice context only; no clinical benefit or safety outcome is inferred.

Imported wording: An American Massage Therapy Association account of post-event sports massage describes lighter strokes such as compression and effleurage with passive stretching, rather than deep massage.

Post-Event Sports Massage - Massage Therapy Journal (AMTA)

Historical research outcome: verified-description · 2026-10-06

An attributed practice description was verified without importing the source's benefit claims, recommendations or assumptions about prevalence.

https://www.amtamassage.org/publications/massage-therapy-journal/post-event-sports-massage/: verified-description — Independently read the live source and checked this limited, attributed description: An American Massage Therapy Association account of post-event sports massage describes lighter strokes such as compression and effleurage with passive stretching, rather than deep massage.

Pharmacokinetic context

No half-life recorded in this source snapshot. No value has been inferred.

Source references

Snapshot provenance

Source ID: catalog:recovery:massage. Commit: adc7684614f9439b41d91a3312b62e7982c7e20e. Review state: historical-not-reverified. Authored links are retained separately from the canonical evidence links in the public data. App templates/defaults and rejected drafts are archived, not deployed.

Related entries and components

None listed.