The immediate effect of sports massage on proprioception of knee and ankle joints in collegiate male athletes

The purpose of the present study was to examine the immediate effect of massage protocol on proprioception sense of knee and ankle joints in collegiate male athletes.
Material and The study included 30 athletes of Tehran University, with the age range of 18 to28 years. They were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. Each group consisted of 15 athletes. Using gyroscopes, measurement of proprioception was performed by method of knee and ankle joint repositioning error. The experimental group received 10 minutes of massage. Paired t-test and independent t-test were used to analyze the data.
The results of the study showed that use of massage decreased the repositioning error in the knee joint by 0. 94 degree and in the ankle joint by 0.86 at plantar flexion and 0.79 at dorsiflexion.
Massage can be used for the improvement of proprioception and prevention of injuries in the athletes.