Massage: what is it good for?
Trina Hallsey, Stoke-on-Trent

Massage has long been used to treat musculo-skeletal problems in both western and oriental cultures. Many practitioners and patients swear by it, although there is little scientific evidence that massage following sports activities has any effect on the recovery process. In cases where an elevated blood flow to a given muscle is desired, light exercise might be more beneficial.

Many manual techniques are used in medical massage, including soft-tissue massage, passive and active stretching, motion exercises, and heat and cold applied locally. Deep transverse tissue massage is popular in treating muscle, tendon and ligament injuries, and seems to have hard science behind it. It promotes healing by applying heavy pressure directly to the lesion and transverse to the direction of the muscle fibres. The heavy pressure aids healing more than light or moderate pressure, probably by stimulating cells which favour tissue repair to act in that area. A new technique in post-traumatic excessive scar tissue production (fibrosis) is "fibrolysis". This procedure superimposes an acute injury on to a chronic, dormant one, to induce the lesion to heal. It is not suitable for patients with venous problems or low pain thresholds but, in my experience, it works in athletes with chronic muscle and tendon injuries.

· Professor Maffulli is a consultant surgeon at Keele University medical school. If you have a question for him, email fitness@theguardian.com