The purpose of this study is to find out the effectiveness of the therapeutic sports massage(TSM) applied to the patients with delayed onset muscle soreness(DOMS) by measuring, assessing and analyzing the changes in intensity and unpleasantness of muscle pains before and after TSM. In the therapeutic sports massage program, such methods as effleurage, petrissage and deep transverse friction were selected as traditional massage treatments frequently used for muscles with pain and spasm. Effleurage and petrissage were applied for 20 minutes in total before and after deep transverse friction treatment. After TSM, the McGill pain questionnaire word list(MPQWL), verbal rating scale(VRS), visual analogue scale(VAS) were used to measure the degree of the pain on the patients.
The major findings from this study are as follows;
l. The surveyed patients range from 15 to 63 in age, with highest numbers of 18(37.50%) registered in the twenties and next ones of 14(29.17%) in the thirties. Divided by sex, 27 are men and 21 are women totaling 48 with average age of 25.7.
2. There was significant decrease in the numerical values of VAS & VRS and MPQWL immediately after TSM(p<.05). There was also significant decrease in the numerical values of MPQWL, VRS and VAS after the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th TSM(p<.05).
3. There was significant decrease in the intensity and unpleasantness of pains after TSM(p<.05).
4. From the analysis into chronological changes in the intensity and unpleasantness of pains before and after TSM with ANOVA, it became evident that the longer the period of treatment was, the higher the pains decreases drastically, while significant difference was shown in the intensity and unpleasantness of pains(p<.05 ).
Summed up, it can be generally concluded that TSM is an effective treatment to rid the patients with DOMS of pains safely and promptly.
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