Mon Soigneur

[ornoth_cycling]

I’ve mentioned a couple times that this year I planned to visit a massage therapist after my big rides, to evaluate whether professional massage provided any discernible benefit in terms of recovery, flexibility, and muscle tightness. Now, with my season unexpectedly cut short, I guess I have the time to summarize my experience.

I had five sessions (sort of). The first one didn’t really count, as it was early season and I hadn’t ridden in several weeks. It was more just an expectation-setting and get-to-know-you session.

My first real post-ride session was three days after the hot & hard Tour d’Essex County. The result wasn’t very positive. Despite my primary interest in leg work, the masseur worked my upper body a lot, and not gently. I left with new pains in my chest, bicep, lower back, and groin, along with some unexpected bruising.

I think much of the problem was his predominant orientation toward therapeutic massage. His initial focus was on finding structural issues in my upper body and “repairing” them, rather than my explicitly-stated interest in simple muscular recovery and flexibility in my legs and glutes.

My next session was two days after Outriders… or would have been, except the masseur canceled on me. I’d been looking forward to a good workout after the extremely long 130-mile early-season ride, but so much for that!

Two days after the Mt. Washington Century was my next session. By then it was the end of July. That went well; I felt like I got more than my allotted timeslice, and my legs did feel a little looser afterward. But I can’t say it was dramatically different from what I could achieve myself.

My final session was two days after the Pan-Mass Challenge, and that was very similar: a bit more time than I expected, and reasonably good (but not dramatic) results.

Then of course after the accident there haven’t been any long rides, so I haven’t been back.

So my overall experience was mixed. While it was pleasant and somewhat helpful, it certainly didn’t provide a compelling training and recovery benefit beyond the self-massage techniques that I’ve done in previous years.

Judging from my experience at the PMC, I believe that what you get out of massage can vary very widely from MT to MT, so maybe that’s part of the equation, too.

Would I continue doing it? Sure… except for the expense. At $70 to $100 a pop, that’s a lot of cash to pay for a small benefit, especially if it’s coming out of pocket rather than covered by insurance. I’m glad I tried it, but I can’t justify the expense.

I certainly will put renewed emphasis on self-massage after rides, because I have certainly seen the benefit of postride massage. I’m just not convinced that that it’s worth paying someone else to provide that service.

Or maybe I should find a new romantic interest who might be willing to help… Nah!