Plan massage frequency for training load.
Massage frequency should track training load rather than a fixed calendar slot. This planner builds a load index from your weekly hours weighted by typical intensity — hard interval and heavy lifting weeks count roughly twice an easy aerobic week — plus a term for how many days you actually finish sore, which is the most honest signal that tissue is not keeping up with the work. That index converts to a monthly session count, then gets reconciled against what your budget can actually cover. Where the two disagree the recommendation is to concentrate the sessions you can afford immediately after your heaviest block, since a well-timed session after a hard week does more than the same money spread thinly across easy weeks.
Training load index
Load = weekly hours x intensity weight + soreness days x 1.5
Recommended frequency
Sessions per month = load index / 5, held between 0.5 and 8
Spacing
Days between sessions = 30 / sessions per month
General wellbeing guidance for recreational planning, not medical advice. Individual needs vary with health conditions, medication and injury history. Consult a qualified health professional — a doctor, physiotherapist or accredited practitioner — before starting, changing or relying on any recovery, therapy or training protocol.
No. Beyond roughly weekly for most recreational athletes the added benefit flattens while the cost keeps climbing. Deep work also needs recovery time of its own — booking a hard session the day before a key event or race often leaves tissue feeling worse, not better.
Hours measure what you asked of the body; soreness measures what it is struggling to absorb. Two people can train the same volume and only one finishes sore, which usually reflects sleep, nutrition, life stress or a recent jump in load. The soreness term catches that.
One to two days after your hardest session captures the most benefit while leaving time to recover from the massage itself. Avoid deep tissue work within 48 hours of a competition; light flushing work is fine closer in.