If you lead an active lifestyle, then you know just how hard a workout can be on your body. Whether it’s strength training, running, Crossfit or something in between, an intense workout can leave your muscles feeling sore.

There are many ways to support your recovery after a workout, but what about massage? You may have heard that massage chairs can be an effective recovery tool, but is that true? Is it good to get a massage after a workout? Let’s find out.

How Workouts Impact Your Body

You know that exercise is crucial to your health, but do you know what a workout really does to your body?

When you exercise:

• Your body moves blood from your digestive system and liver to your muscles.
• Your hormones signal that it’s time to convert fat into glucose for energy, and they give you a nice mood boost, too.
• Also, Your muscles generate lactic acid. As lactic acid levels rise, the pH of the blood surrounding your muscles drops. Eventually, the lower pH prevents muscles from contracting further. Rest is needed to metabolize the lactic acid.

Of course, this is just an oversimplification of what happens during a workout. Exercise affects every part of your body.

• Your brain produces neurotransmitters like GABA, serotonin and dopamine.
• Your heart beats faster because your body is releasing adrenaline. As your capillaries open wider, blood flow increases by up to 20 times.
• Also, Your lungs draw in up to 15 times more oxygen than when you’re at rest.
• Your sweat glands get to work and can produce up to 1.4 liters of sweat in an hour.
• Your muscles squeeze the veins that run through them to send more blood to your heart.
• If you’re performing weight-bearing exercises, this will stimulate bone formation and reduce calcium loss.

An intense workout will cause microtrauma to your muscles, and as this trauma heals, they cause soreness.

There’s a lot going on with your body during and after a workout. That’s why it’s so important to focus on your recovery when you engage in intense exercise.

Using a massage chair can help by offering many benefits for your post-workout routine.

Benefits of Using a Massage Chair After a Workout

There are many benefits of massage after a workout. Here’s what a massage chair can do for your recovery routine.

Reduce Muscle Soreness

Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is common after an intense workout. It’s a sign that your muscles are getting stronger, but it’s also uncomfortable. Depending on the intensity of the workout, it may be downright debilitating.

But using a massage chair right after your workout may help reduce soreness. Here’s why:

• Massage can help improve circulation to deliver more oxygen and nutrients to speed up healing

Soreness is a sign that your workout did its job, but it also makes your day more difficult. Even day-to-day tasks can be painful, and in cases of severe DOMS, your next workout may be put on hold until you feel better.

Alleviate Stress

Exercise puts stress on your body. Combine that with the everyday stresses that we all experience and you can easily find yourself feeling rundown.

A massage chair can help alleviate stress, allowing you to relax and your body to heal from your workout.

Enjoy a Massage Anytime

One great benefit of using a massage chair after a workout is that there are no time constraints. That’s something you can’t get with a massage therapist.

Massage chairs are available 24/7, so you can use it right after your workout, whether that’s early in the morning or late at night. Plus, you can enjoy quick massage sessions (10 minutes or less), which is another thing that’s hard to do with a professional massage therapist.

Best Programs for a Post-workout Massage

Massage chairs often have built-in programs that make it easy to enjoy your massage. Some of these programs are great for post-workout use.

For example, the Certus chair from Human Touch has Stretch and Recovery programs that can help support your post-workout recovery.

Can You Use Massage Chairs Before a Workout?

It makes sense to use a massage chair after a workout, but what about before? Whether or not you should use a massage chair as part of your pre-workout will depend on your goals.

The benefits of a post-workout massage outweigh the benefits of a pre-workout one. However, a massage may be really beneficial before exercise if:

• You have really tight knots that are limiting your movement or causing pain
• Also, You want to warm up your muscles
• You need to improve flexibility

Keep the intensity low for a pre-workout massage. An intense massage can leave your muscles feeling sore and uncomfortable.

Final Thoughts

There are many advantages to using a massager for muscle recovery. Along with helping relax your body, a massage chair can get your blood flowing and help speed up the healing process. It’s a great tool to have in your recovery box, and you can enjoy it anytime y