Key result
Therapeutic calf massage increases RMSSD by ~15% and lowers HR and BP in healthy women.
Why the study?
Calf massage improves circulation and autonomic performance by modulating vagal tone, but its immediate effects on cardiac autonomic activity required evaluation in healthy subjects.
Does a 20-minute calf massage improve cardiac autonomic modulation in healthy young females?
Does a 20-minute calf massage improve cardiac autonomic modulation in healthy young females?
Absolute Event Rate: 54.69% vs 47.56%
p-value: p=0.01
A single 20-minute session of calf massage significantly improves parasympathetic tone and reduces sympathetic tone in healthy young females.
May transiently boost parasympathetic tone in healthy women; leaves open clinical relevance or durability.
Background: Calf massage is a therapeutic intervention that improves circulation and relieves us from pain & tightness. The calf massage also improves autonomic performance by modulating the vagal tone of the cardiovascular system. Therefore, the current study was intended to determine therapeutic calf massage on cardio autonomic activity in healthy subjects. Objective: To assess the immediate effect of a single 20-min session of calf massage on cardiac autonomic modulation through heart rate variability (HRV) measurement. Materials & Methods: In this study, 26 apparent healthy female participants aged between 18 and 25 years participated. Massage over the calf muscles on both legs for 20 min was performed, and resting cardiovascular parameters and HRV parameters were measured at baseline, immediately after the massage, and during the recovery periods (10 and 30 min after the massage). Data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA followed with post hoc analysis. Results: < .01). In HRV parameters, the root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD) and high-frequency normalized unit (HF n.u.) increased, and low frequency (LF n.u.) decreased after the massage, and at the 10 and 30 min of the recovery period. Conclusion: The present study reports suggest a significant reduction in heart rate and blood pressure after the massage therapy. A drop in sympathetic tone and raise in parasympathetic tone can also attribute to the therapeutic effect.
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Kumar et al. (2023) studied Healthy volunteers (n=26). Therapeutic calf massage vs. Baseline (pre-intervention) was evaluated on Root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD) immediately after massage (p=0.01). A single 20-minute session of therapeutic calf massage significantly increased RMSSD (from 47.56 to 54.69 msec) and decreased heart rate and blood pressure in healthy female volunteers.
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