The Effect of Swedish Relaxation Massage on Reducing Mental Fatigue and Enhancing Knee Strength and Proprioception in Collegiate Female Athletes

Mental fatigue usually occurs after long-term cognitive activities, reducing cognitive performance and leading to motor coordination changes. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effect of Swedish relaxation massage on reducing mental fatigue and enhancing knee strength and Proprioception in university female athletes. In this study, 16 female physical education athletes were randomly selected as a sample based on the inclusion criteria and subjected to the mental fatigue protocol (45 minutes of cognitive activity). Active and passive knee proprioception was evaluated with an inclinometer before and after mental fatigue, and knee extension strength was evaluated with a manual dynamometer. After 48 hours, the subjects underwent a Swedish relaxation massage. Immediately following the massage session, assessments were conducted to measure mental fatigue and the second post-test. A repeated measures analysis of variance test was employed to examine the intra-group changes over time. The findings showed a significant difference between the subjects' mean scores of active Proprioception, passive Proprioception, and knee extension strength in comparing the post-test of mental fatigue with the post-test of Swedish relaxation massage (P<0.05). The present study's findings showed that Swedish relaxation massage can be used as an effective intervention in controlling mental fatigue. Therefore, this intervention can be used to prevent sports injuries of athletes, especially amateur athletes, where mental fatigue is common.