Sports massage with ozonised oil or non-ozonised oil: comparative effects on recovery parameters after maximal effort in cyclists

Paoli A, Bianco A, Battaglia G, et al. Physical Therapy in Sport, 2013.

View the abstract on PubMed

Study type
Controlled trial (non-randomized)
People studied
15 people
Population
Competitive amateur male cyclists
Published
2013, Physical Therapy in Sport
Identifiers
PMID 23623301, DOI 10.1016/j.ptsp.2012.11.004
Group
Ozone therapy more broadly

What the authors reported

In a within-subject comparison of 15 cyclists, sports massage with ozonised oil produced higher peak power and lower perceived fatigue after fatiguing exercise than massage without ozone or passive rest.

What limits this result

Topical ozonised massage oil, not autohemotherapy or EBO2; a small single-center sample measuring short-term performance rather than any clinical outcome.

Other ozone methods, such as major autohemotherapy, that clinics cite in support of EBO2. A result for one method does not transfer automatically to another. One study rarely settles a medical question; our guides weigh each paper against the rest of the evidence.

How the study was done

Design
Intra-subjects experimental design with repeated measures
Setting
Department of Human Anatomy and Physiology, University of Padua
Read from
Read from the abstract only; where this page says nothing about an item, the abstract does not report it. Read on September 28, 2026.

Source: Abstract on PubMed

Study arms

Each group as the paper describes it.
GroupParticipantsWhat they received
Fifteen male competitive cyclists15Participants (age 27 ± 3.5 years, body weight 77.6 ± 8.3 kg, height 178 ± 7.7 cm); intra-subjects comparison of the three recovery conditions listed next
PRNot reportedPassive rest
SMNot reportedSports massage without ozonised oil
SMOZONot reportedSports massage with ozonised oil

Source: Abstract on PubMed

What it measured

Cyclists' heart rate patterns in the three experimental conditions
No significant differences (p > 0.05)
Pmax
Higher after SMOZO recovery (p < 0.05)
Perceived fatigue VAS score in the ramp test
Lower after SMOZO recovery (p < 0.033)
Blood lactate
Decreased more at T2 and T3 than at T1 compared with the SM and PR conditionsBlood lactate decreased more at T2 (mid-time point of treatment) and T3 (final time point of treatment) than T1 (beginning of treatment) compared to SM and PR conditions.

Source: Abstract on PubMed

Where we cite this study

All studies we track · How the studies compare