Hormonal responses to traditional and sports massage recovery methods after exercise

Changes in the secretion of hormones, which are effective in maintaining the internal balance of the body during exercise, adversely affect physical performance. Recovery practices performed in the period following the physical load play an important role in rapidly reaching the resting level of the ratios of these hormones in the blood plasma. Although there is research on this subject, no study has yet been found on which recovery practices are more effective. Therefore, the aim of this study is to compare the effects of traditional and sports massage recovery methods on some hormones after high-intensity exercise, which gradually increases in intensity. Twelve well-trained semi-elite male athletes with a mean age of 23.41±2.96 years and a sports age of 11.83±2.28 voluntarily participated in the study. Following high-intensity running exercises, which were repeated one week apart, and performed until fatigue, participants were included in traditional and sports massage recovery methods for 20 minutes in a crossover design. Blood samples were taken from the antecubital vein from the athletes at rest, after exercise, in the middle and at the end of physical recovery periods, and their heart rates were monitored by a digital display device. Serum cortisol, adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), corticotropin hormone (CRH) and endorphin hormone values of centrifuged blood samples were determined by spectrometric method and reported. Normality and homogeneity of the data were determined by Shapiro-Wilk and Levene tests, respectively. Data were tested with a two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey post hoc tests were used for pairwise comparisons. The effects of traditional and sports massage recovery methods on the serum level of hormones were statistically significant (p<0.05). Increases in cortisol (89%), ACTH (80%) and CRH (71%) and decrease in endorphin hormones (42%) at the end of exercise were statistically significant compared to resting level (p <0.05). There were significant increases in serum cortisol by 58% vs. 17% (p<0.05), and in endorphins by 32% vs. 40% (p<0.05) according to post-exercise values in the middle of traditional and massage recovery periods, respectively. On the other hand, there was a decrease in serum cortisol by -37% vs. -42% (p<0.05), and an increase in endorphins by 36% vs. 41% (p<0.05) at the end of the traditional and massage recovery methods, respectively. ACTH, which increased significantly by 80% in relation to exercise, decreased significantly at the mid (p<0.05) and end of (p<0.05) recovery, with a significant difference only at mid-recovery between traditional and massage (-30% vs. -40%, p<0.05, respectively). There was a 71% increase in CRH due to exercise, which decreased significantly by 28% vs. 30% in the middle, and by 41% vs 45% at the end of the traditional and massage recovery periods (p<0.05), respectively, there was no, however, a significant difference between the methods for both recovery periods. Endorphins (decreased) and cortisol, ACTH, and CRH (increased) hormones, whose plasma levels change significantly in relation to exercise, have significantly changed in these ratios in both traditional and massage recovery periods. In this study, it was concluded that cortisol and endorphin hormones both in the middle and at the end of the recovery period, and ACTH hormone in the middle of the recovery gave a more positive response to the massage method than the traditional method.