Scottish Manual Therapists Organisation

A proud moment for the Scottish massage profession. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

SMTO member Lori has travelled down from Ellon to spend two weeks providing soft tissue therapy for athletes from across the Commonwealth during Glasgow 2026.
She is already extremely busy, with soft tissue therapy proving highly popular among the athletes. It is a valuable opportunity to demonstrate the skill, professionalism and commitment that massage and soft tissue therapists bring to sport, preparation and recovery.

Lori owns BodyLogic and is also the senior tutor at Grampian School of Massage, supporting the next generation of therapists.

We are delighted to see an SMTO member representing the profession and showing just how valued skilled, athlete focused soft tissue therapy can be. 👏💙

EFFECT OF SPORTS MASSAGE ON PERFORMANCE AND RECOVERY
🏃 Does sports massage actually improve sporting performance?

Davis, Alabed and Chico’s 2020 systematic review and meta analysis examined 29 randomised studies involving 1,012 participants.

The review found no evidence that massage improved strength, jumping, sprinting, endurance or fatigue. It was associated with small improvements in flexibility and delayed onset muscle soreness.

For soft tissue manual therapists, this is valuable because it helps separate performance claims from more realistic outcomes. Massage may support comfort, flexibility and the athlete’s experience of recovery without directly making them stronger, faster or more powerful.

⚠️ The included studies used different sports, massage methods, treatment durations and outcome measures. Many were small, so the overall conclusions remain limited by the quality of the original research.

🔗 Research paper:
https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjsem-2019-000614

Gentle Touch 🤲✨
Gentle touch can still be meaningful. Massage does not always need to be deep or forceful to feel supportive, comforting, and worthwhile.
For some people, slower and lighter touch may help them feel calmer, more comfortable, and more connected to their body.

Behind every athlete is a wider team helping them prepare, compete and recover. 👐
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
At Glasgow 2026, SMTO member Linda is part of Team Scotland’s medical and wellbeing team, providing soft tissue therapy for Scotland’s competing athletes.

This is Linda’s fourth Commonwealth Games:
Glasgow 2014
Gold Coast 2018
Birmingham 2022
Glasgow 2026

On 23 July, she joined Team Scotland for the Opening Ceremony at Glasgow’s Hydro, an especially significant moment at her home Games.

Her continued selection reflects the experience, professional standards and practical contribution that skilled soft tissue therapists can bring to athlete support at major international sporting events. 👏💙

Haemodialysis patients
🦶 Foot massage and haemodialysis, what does the research say?

Research title: Effects of Foot Massage on Severity of Fatigue and Quality of Life in Hemodialysis Patients: A Randomized Controlled Trial, Habibzadeh et al., 2020
This randomised controlled trial found that foot massage appeared to reduce fatigue in people undergoing haemodialysis. Quality of life scores improved, although the findings should be interpreted with care.

The limitations matter. This was a specific clinical population, with a defined intervention and study setting. Results from haemodialysis patients cannot simply be transferred to all fatigue related presentations.

The practical message is that simple touch based interventions may support comfort and fatigue management in some clinical settings, but therapists must understand medical context, vascular access, skin integrity, infection control and contraindications.
🔗 Research link:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7153426/

🏐 Two SMTO members supporting elite sport at Glasgow 2026.

Lesley and Lisa are working on site with Team England Netball, providing soft tissue therapy for competing athletes throughout the Games.

Their role forms part of the wider support available around training, competition and recovery. In a demanding multi sport environment, therapists need to work professionally, communicate clearly with the wider team and adapt treatment to each athlete’s needs, schedule and preferences.

It is valuable to see SMTO members contributing their skills at a major international sporting event and demonstrating the place of well delivered soft tissue therapy within athlete support. 👏

Western School of Massage

Massage With Purpose
Skilled touch should always have purpose. It should be safe, respectful, appropriate and guided by the person in front of you. 🤲🌿
SMTO supports therapists who want to practise with professionalism, care and clear clinical reasoning.

From Glasgow to the Gold Coast, Birmingham and back home to Glasgow. 🌍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Linda’s Commonwealth Games journey began at Glasgow 2014, followed by Gold Coast 2018 and Birmingham 2022. In 2026, she is once again providing soft tissue therapy for competing athletes, this time as part of Team Scotland’s medical and wellbeing team.

One of the memorable moments was walking into the Opening Ceremony with Team Scotland at The Hydro on 23 July. The Glasgow ceremony marked the first time a Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony had been staged inside an arena.

Four Games, years of experience and one continuing commitment to supporting athletes with skill, care and professionalism. 💙