Posch Doris, Antretter Markus, Zach Michael, Faulhaber Martin, Burtscher Martin
Department of Sport Science, University of Innsbruck, Fürstenweg 185, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
Federal Gymnasium and Federal Realgymnasium, Sillgasse 10, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
Healthcare (Basel). 2025 Jun 4;13(11):1337. doi: 10.3390/healthcare13111337.
Cycling has become a popular recreational sport, but it can lead to injuries and overload syndromes. The goal of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a training-accompanied myofascial self-massage intervention on two primary outcomes: injury occurrence and perceived training intensity. : To achieve this goal, we conducted a randomized controlled trial (RCT) with 35 cyclists. A difference-in-differences (DiD) regression analysis was employed to analyze the effects of the intervention. : The DiD analysis revealed, on the one hand, no statistically significant effect of the intervention on the overall injury score. On the other hand, the intervention group showed a significantly smaller increase in perceived training intensity compared to the control group, supporting the hypothesis that myofascial self-massage decreases the perception of training intensity. In one of our strongest models, which estimated the impact of the intervention from baseline to the second post-test, we observed an adjusted R-squared value of 0.89 and an interaction term coefficient of 1.35 at a significance level of < 0.01. This indicates that, on average, the increase in perceived training intensity was 1.35 points higher (on a scale of 0 to 10) in the control group than in the intervention group. : This study found no evidence to support the effectiveness of a training-accompanied myofascial self-massage in reducing injury levels, but it demonstrated that the intervention may reduce perceived training intensity. Future studies with larger sample sizes and more objective injury tracking methods are needed to further explore these findings and their long-term implications for injury prevention in cycling.
骑自行车已成为一项受欢迎的休闲运动，但它可能导致受伤和过度使用综合征。本研究的目的是评估一种伴随训练的肌筋膜自我按摩干预对两个主要结果的有效性：受伤发生率和感知训练强度。为实现这一目标，我们对35名自行车骑行者进行了一项随机对照试验（RCT）。采用差异-in-差异（DiD）回归分析来分析干预的效果。DiD分析一方面显示，干预对总体损伤评分没有统计学上的显著影响。另一方面，与对照组相比，干预组的感知训练强度增加明显更小，这支持了肌筋膜自我按摩会降低训练强度感知的假设。在我们最强的一个模型中，该模型估计了从基线到第二次测试后干预的影响，我们观察到调整后的R平方值为0.89，交互项系数在显著性水平<0.01时为1.35。这表明，平均而言，对照组的感知训练强度增加（在0至10的量表上）比干预组高1.35分。本研究没有发现证据支持伴随训练的肌筋膜自我按摩在降低损伤水平方面的有效性，但它表明该干预可能会降低感知训练强度。需要进行更大样本量和更客观的损伤跟踪方法的未来研究，以进一步探索这些发现及其对自行车骑行中预防损伤的长期影响。
