Evaluation of delayed onset muscle soreness after concentric and eccentric exercises in adolescent healthy athletes aged 11-18 and examining the effect of massage

The aim of this study is to evaluate the delayed onset muscle soreness that occurs in the muscles after exercise induced muscle damage and anthropometric measurements such as muscle strength and edema, and also to examine the effect of massage in reducing this pain. Individuals who were randomly divided equally into massage and control groups were evaluated for pain, muscle strength, joint range of motion and edema after a challenging exercise involving eccentric contractions for the quadrices femoris muscle in the non dominant extremity and were followed for 4 days. Massage application was applied to the study group 3 times in total for 15 minutes each. Anthropometric evaluations were made a total of 6 times over 4 days and were repeated at the same times of the day. As a result of the evaluations made after eccentric exercise, it was observed that the feeling of pain was less in the study group. It seems that massage application has an effect on circumference measurements made for joint range of motion and edema but this difference is not statistically significant. A significant difference in muscle strength evaluation was observed at the 72nd hour after eccentric exercise. As a result, this study revealed that massage is effective in the treatment of delayed onset muscle soreness and positively affects other anthropometric measurements. This study is also considered important as it serves as a source for future studies on delayed onset muscle soreness. More studies are needed to make detailed evaluations.