#11 Laughing Shouldn't Hurt: How Sports Massage Halves Core Muscle Soreness
Laughing, sneezing, or simply trying to sit up in bed after an intense core workout shouldn't feel like a personal betrayal from your own body.
Abdominal Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) hits harder than soreness in almost any other muscle group. Why? Because your rectus abdominis is engaged in literally everything you do—from stabilizing heavy deadlifts to maintaining posture during an 8-hour sprint in front of your workstation.
While most high-performers just suffer through core soreness, a 2025 study published in the Baltic Journal of Health and Physical Activity by Boguszewski et al. put core recovery under an infrared thermal imaging camera to see what soft tissue work actually does.
The Thermal Camera Experiment
Researchers put participants through an intense 5-set sit-up protocol designed to induce maximum rectus abdominis DOMS. The participants were split into two groups:
The Massage Group: Received a 15-minute classic sports massage on the day of exercise and on the following two days.
The Control Group: Received zero bodywork.
Using the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) for pain and medical-grade infrared thermography, researchers tracked soreness and tissue inflammation across 72 hours.
The Data: Curing the 72-Hour Crash
The Pain Cliff: Soreness peaked at 48 hours for both groups. But by 72 hours, the massage group’s pain scores plummeted to a mild 2.40 on the VAS scale, while the control group remained stuck in severe discomfort at 4.00.
Thermal Imaging Proof: In the un-massaged group, skin temperature over the abs continued to rise through day three, signaling persistent, unchecked tissue inflammation. In contrast, the sports massage group kept inflammatory heat under control, proving that soft tissue work actively flushes micro-inflammation and accelerates tissue repair.
Complementary Science: Why Core Recovery Matters
Core soft tissue work isn't just about making sit-ups less painful the next day. Independent respiratory research demonstrates that severe abdominal DOMS and rectus abdominis stiffness can reduce lung functional capacity and respiratory muscle endurance by up to 7.5% (Ozden et al., 2024). When your abs are locked up in protective guarding, your diaphragm cannot expand fully, compromising oxygen delivery during subsequent workouts.
Furthermore, comprehensive meta-analyses on sports recovery confirm that post-exercise massage reduces circulating inflammatory markers and dampens localized swelling significantly faster than passive rest alone (Dupuy et al., 2018; Guo et al., 2017).
Your High-Performance Takeaways
Don't Ignore Abdominal Bodywork: Ask your therapist to incorporate upper-body and core soft tissue work into your recovery sessions—especially after high-volume core or compound training.
Commit to a 3-Day Window: Applying 15-minute sports massage sessions across the 72-hour post-workout window prevents chronic inflammatory heat build-up and speeds up muscle regeneration.
Protect Your Respiratory Output: Keeping your rectus abdominis supple ensures uninhibited breathing mechanics and trunk stability during intense training sessions.
Invest in proper abdominal recovery so you can crush your workouts without fear of laughing at a joke three days later. Because the only thing that should be painfully tight in your life is your schedule, not your six-pack.
Sources
Boguszewski, D., Kaaroud, C., & Adamczyk, J. (2025). Assessment of the effect of classic sports massage on the reduction of delayed onset muscle soreness in the rectus abdominis. Baltic Journal of Health and Physical Activity, 17(1), Article 9. https://doi.org/10.29359/BJHPA.17.1.09
Dupuy, O., et al. (2018). An evidence-based approach for choosing post-exercise recovery techniques to reduce markers of muscle damage, soreness, fatigue, and inflammation: A systematic review with meta-analysis. Frontiers in Physiology, 9, 403. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2018.00403
Guo, J., et al. (2017). Massage alleviates delayed onset muscle soreness after strenuous exercise: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in Physiology, 8, 747. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2017.00747
Ozden, S., et al. (2024). Effects of delayed-onset muscle pain on respiratory muscle function. Sports Health, 16(6), 942–949. https://doi.org/10.1177/19417381231214776
