This thread reminded me of a question that’s occasionally made me wonder: just why does a massage feel good? I mean, pushing and pulling on muscles that might be pretty sore to start with… you’d think that this sort of thing would increase pain by injuring/reinjuring the tissues. In fact I remember one time I’d had a nasty muscle spasm in my back/shoulder, that lasted a week. I finally went for a massage, told the therapist about it, got a very deep-tissue massage that felt like it left bruises… and the next day my shoulder felt nearly back to normal.
Does it have something to do with increased blood flow? squeezing toxins out (the other thread seems to debunk that)? placebo effect?
Might be more IMHO territory, but I figured I’d try GQ first in case anyone has any more quantifiable info.