For several decades, our life balance has significantly evolved, leading to increased sedentary behavior, mental load, and generating daily tensions. Office work and reduced physical activity for some, repetitive actions or stress for others, and widespread use of smartphones, television, and computers for everyone.
New issues have emerged or become widespread, such as back pain, muscle tension, burnout, and stress, combining physical, psychological, and emotional dimensions.
To prevent these problems, solutions are sought by individuals and collectively within companies. These include sports activities, meditation, massage, and relaxation. Employees and HR departments are looking for ways to help individuals reconnect with their bodies and release daily tensions.
This article summarizes a literature review conducted by Yann Kerautret, a Ph.D. student in sports science at Capsix Robotics in partnership with LIBM (Interuniversity Laboratory of Motor Biology), published in December 2020. It focuses on the state of scientific discoveries regarding manual massage practices, self-massage (known as Foam Rolling in English), and the emergence of robotic massage, as well as their physical and psychological benefits.
Manual massage is an ancient practice that requires the intervention of a trained professional. It involves techniques such as stroking, kneading, static or sliding pressures, and light or deep pressures.
Self-massage is a technique that involves massaging oneself, with or without tools. The tool can be a ball, a stick, or a massage roller.
Robotic massage is performed by a robotic solution.
What are the effects of manual massage and self-massage?
There are two types of effects:
- Neurophysiological data, which are measurable and objective. For example, muscle,
brain, and heart activity; blood circulation, muscle stiffness, and electrodermal
activity. - Psychological data, which are subjective and collected through questionnaires.
For example, traits (long-term) and states (related to the moment) of anxiety, acute
and chronic stress, and emotions linked, for example, to depression.
Thanks to this data, the following effects are noted:
- Subjective and objective improvement of relaxation
- Increase in Heart Rate Variability (HRV, an indicator of adaptability to all kinds of
events) - Subjective and objective reduction of stress
- Increase in well-being
- Decrease in anxiety and depression
- Reduction in medication intake
- Decrease in muscle tone
- Increase in the feeling of muscle relaxation
- Return to original joint range of motion (stiffness caused by repetitive movements
How long do these beneficial effects last?
After a single session, the duration of these effects is very short: for muscle stiffness, less than 3 minutes. The difference is almost unnoticeable, but for subjective measures, a difference can be seen. For range of motion issues, the effects last about ten minutes.
Long-term effects appear with regular practice. With recurrence, there is a certain adaptability, better posture, and a generally healthier
state.
Massage is a maintenance activity, like sports or meditation, where lasting effects are only felt with regular practice. It is a solution to improve daily quality of life. Each person must find what they enjoy to maintain it over time. It must be a pleasure and not a constraint.
And what about robotic massage?
Research on robotic massage is not new; projects have emerged in universities: in 1998 in Russia, followed by Israel, and Japan in 2008
with one of the very first massage robots.
The goal of robotic massage is not to replace health or wellness professionals in existing practices but to complement their work by opening up new uses or offering effects not achievable by human hands. It provides a relevant alternative to manual massage due to the constant availability of a robot that does not tire, allowing for mass treatments, as well as the possibility of being installed in locations with few or no services available (businesses, sports facilities, airports, etc.). It is very suitable for repetitive practices and can provide interesting effects as a complement to human therapy, such as vibratory effects. The goal of this research is to approach the effects of manual massage or self-massage practices.
A new generation of robots, effort-driven collaborative robots, has accelerated this research since 2015, with the emergence of several commercial projects worldwide. French, Singaporean, Spanish, or American, these projects bring robotic massage to life, each with its own vision and market.
Capsix Robotics, like its competitors, is developing strong R&D activities alongside its commercial activities to make possible what were previously only ideas and prototypes. In this context, a Ph.D. thesis currently underway at Capsix aims to study the differences and similarities between massage performed by others, self-massage, and robotic massage.
The motor control of manual massage is predominantly retroactive: the person is passive in their experience. In self-massage, motor control is proactive: the person is active in the treatment.
It is believed that robotic massage allows for a transition from one to the other. The subjective part is the robot executing its program, and the proactive part is the remote control that allows the pressure of the massage to be adjusted and to act in real-time on the treatment.
Studies are ongoing on this topic.
What do we take away from this?
The benefits of massage, whether performed by another person or by oneself, are numerous, both physiologically and psychologically.
However, the benefits are short-term. Just as one workout per month is not enough to stay in shape, the strength of massage lies in its regularity. Yet few people can access a session every week or more, due to time, accessibility, availability, and financial constraints.
Robotic massage addresses a demand that exceeds supply. The availability of the robotic device, its proximity to living spaces, the cost of sessions, and the privacy it preserves are all advantages that make it a complement to the work of professional masseurs. It may even pave the way for the democratization of a treatment long underutilized in the West!
Interested in the topic? Find the literature review published by our Ph.D. student Yann KERAUTRET right here! ⬅
