Whether you just finished a HIIT class, sprint session, or upper-body workout, muscle soreness is expected. Everyone has their favorite way to recover, relying on foam rolling, stretching, ice baths (see benefits of cold therapy), and saunas. But there's a new discovery that could blow them all out of the water.
It's a strategic type of massage called the "triple-eight technique," and evidence suggests it can reduce muscle stiffness and soreness almost instantly, according to a new study published in Cell Reports.
The study, which was led by Michael Dimitriou, an associate professor at the Department of Medical and Translational Biology at Umeå University, focused on muscle spindles, sensory receptors that help protect muscles.
When a muscle is stretched, muscle spindles activate and alert the brain that certain joints, ligaments, or muscles are in danger of being stretched too far, too quickly. They can tell the muscles to stay contracted to reduce the stretch (aka the stretch reflex), minimizing injury.
"The results provide an important piece of the puzzle in understanding what information our nervous system receives from muscles," says Dimitriou.
For the study, researchers applied three different levels of sustained pressure to participants' forearm muscles. As they applied pressure, they simultaneously recorded signals from nerve fibers within the muscle spindles they pressed on. When the participants kept their muscles motionless, the muscle spindles reacted strongly to muscle pressure.
The reaction suggested that pressure alone is a sufficient stimulus for these receptors. On the other hand, when the participants moved their hands while the forearm was under pressure, it significantly enhanced the spindles' response. According to the researchers, this finding challenges the current understanding that muscle spindles only respond to a stretching motion.
The study also revealed that when the researchers suddenly removed pressure from muscles, the activity of spindles dropped rapidly below the levels they were at before any pressure was applied. Because of this finding, the researchers proposed the “triple-eight” technique, which involves using a finger to apply low amounts of pressure over a sore or stiff muscle area for eight seconds, releasing pressure for eight seconds, then reapplying pressure for another eight seconds. You then follow this with a slow stretching of the relaxed muscle.
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Similar to trigger or massage therapy, this method may be able to reduce muscle stiffness and soreness by applying pressure to the affected area. With trigger point or massage therapy, massage therapists will apply pressure to the affected spot in order to temporarily cut off circulation. This then raises levels of nitric oxide and allows blood flow to break up the trigger point.
While the news that the triple-eight technique can help reduce stiffness and soreness in the muscles is promising, more research is needed to determine if this is a foolproof method that can work on other individuals and other muscles.
