The Effect of a Swedish Relaxation Massage and Meditation Session in Controlling Mental Fatigue on Reactive Balance and Lower Extremity Function of Amateur Athletes

Mental fatigue is usually caused by long-term cognitive activities; in a way that reduces cognitive performance and leads to changes in functional activities. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a session of Swedish relaxation massage and meditation in controlling mental fatigue on reactive balance and Lower extremity function of amateur athletes. In this study, 16 female physical education athletes were purposefully selected as a sample based on the study entry criteria, and were subjected to mental fatigue protocol (45 minutes of cognitive activity (Stroop test)), Swedish relaxation massage (30 minutes) and meditation (30 minutes) with a time interval of 48 hours. Reactive balance was evaluated with Y test with automatic lights and, Lower extremity function was evaluated with single hop for distance, triple hop for distance, meter-6 and hop crossover-triple distance tests. Repeated analysis of variance test was used to check intra-group changes.The findings showed that there is a significant difference between the average scores of reactive balance and lower limb performance of the subjects when comparing the post-test of mental fatigue with the post-test of massage and meditation (P<0.05). Also, there is a significant difference between the subjects' scores comparing massage and meditation for reactive balance and body function (P<0.05).In order to prevent sports injuries in athletes, Swedish relaxation massage and meditation can be used as an intervention to speed up the recovery of mental fatigue and improve reactive balance and body function.