Massage has been shown to increase blood lactate clearance during recovery from a short bout of maximum intensity cycling exercise (Jones & Cotterrell 1999; Mondero & Donne, 2000) but not as effectively as continued lower leg muscular activity, despite producing a significant improvement in perception of feeling. The present study investigated the effects of combining a short period of continued low level exercise recovery followed by leg massage on lactate clearance following a 30sec Wingate Anaerobic Test (WAnT). The recovery modes were a combination of 15min continued low level cycling exercise (CE at 60%HRtmax) followed by 30min of either continued cycling exercise (CE+CE), vibratory massage (CE+VM), manual massage (CE+MM) or supine rest (CE+SR). There were no significant differences between the WAnT power outputs (646.5±72.4watts; mean±SD, repeated measures ANOVA) in 10 male subjects (22.3±2.3yrs, 74.7±7.6kg, height 176.0±6.9cm, and 13.3±4.2% body fat) During the recovery period, peak finger prick blood lactate (15.9±1.5mMolnull;l-1) was seen at 3mins and after 15min of CE lactate had fallen to 45.6±7.3% of peak. At 45mins (following a further 30mins of CE) lactate had fallen to its pre-exercise level (89.6±1.6% of peak). Massage, either manual (MM) or vibratory (VM) following 15min CE was less effective in reducing lactate (CE+MM to 80.3±6.3% (p<0.05) and CE+VM to 78.4±8.1% of peak at 45min (p<0.05)), but was more effective than supine rest (CE+SR to 67.6±5.4% of peak at 45min (p<0.05). Supine rest with no CE intervention gave the slowest lactate clearance (57.5±6.7% of peak at 45min (p<0.001)). Therefore, attempting to increase lactate clearance by continued cycling during the period when lactate levels were highest (first 15min) was only marginally more effective than giving 45min of massage alone (MM 72.4±6.0% (p<0.001) and VM 73.0±3.9% of peak (p<0.001). Perception of feeling at 45mins (using a 13-point scale, -6 Very Bad; 0 Neutral; +6 Very Good) was greatest with MM and CE+MM (5.8±0.6 and 5.7±0.5 respectively), and worst with either SR or CE+SR (1.6±1.7 and 2.6±2.1). There was a significant (p<0.05) negative correlation between perception of feeling and blood lactate ranging from r = -0.92 (SR+SR) to -0.78 (MM+MM). The present study indicates that the positive psychological effect of manual massage and to a lesser extent vibratory massage during recovery are linked to, but cannot be attributed entirely to, increased lactate clearance.