Exercise Medicine (Feb 2019)
Application of the Visualization through Stereoscopic Glasses in the Massage Therapy
Abstract
Objectives The aim of this paper was the investigation of the relaxation effect after sports restorative massage in standard conditions and in conditions with additional impact by relaxing 3D VR video through stereoscopic glasses. According to the hypothesis of the study, the application of the visualization through stereoscopic glasses during the massage therapy will increase the effect of the massage. Methods The contingent of the study was 25 Bulgarian students from the National Sports Academy. The age of the participants was 22-28 years old. The study had three conditions. The first condition included initial registration of the heart rate (HR) of every participant at rest, performance of the massage procedure in standard conditions and final HR fixation. The second condition contained initial HR measurement, combined massage with additional impact of relaxing 3D VR video through stereoscopic glasses and final HR measurement. In the third condition, a musculoskeletal state assessment of the participants was made. On this basis, the contingent for the investigation of the influence of relaxing 3D VR video on the pain symptoms was defined. The measure procedures included HR measurement, skin fold lift test and visual analog scale for assessment of the skin resistance in the affected area and pain sensation survey. Results All of the results were with an extremely statistical significance. The heart rate variation before the massage (74.4bpm), after the massage procedure in normal conditions (65.7bpm), and after the massage with additional 3D VR visualization (57.6bpm) was found. Five participants have been diagnosed with resistance and strong pain in the lumbar spine. After a restorative massage with the additional impact of the audio visualization through the virtual reality glasses, painful symptoms were not observed. Conclusions The analysis of the results proved the correctness of the hypothesis of the study. The investigation found that the applying relaxing 3D visualization through stereoscopic glasses during massage therapy leads to increase of the restorative effect and to the reduction of the pain symptoms.
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