I think that, on average, men will like massage less than women. I think that for us, that kind of touch tends to be more sexual, and so turning off that sexual side causes problems and makes it difficult to relax. It’s just hard to be nude and to have your skin being touched and not think it’s intimate.
I know for me that massage often arouses me or gets close to arousing me, and there’s no way I want a man to be touching me that way.
Now, having said that, I have enjoyed a small number of massages in my life, and I am capable of just being touched and not having it feel intimate. But it is a bit of mental work making sure that happens, and if the masseuse is a woman who is attractive to me, you can forget about me being able to do that separation. The masseuse has to be someone I have no attraction to at all for me to be able to relax.
So, in theory, I like massage. It can help my muscles feel better and has done so. Although there are also problems with that. Sometimes my muscles just don’t relax, and I have had massages that leave me worse off—give me muscle spasms because they were too painful. I’ve also had massages that did nothing because they weren’t strong enough.
All in all, especially given the cost, it doesn’t really seem worth it. Finding someone who does it just right, and is someone I can trust and relax with is really hard. Frankly, I’d rather have sex. That generally relaxes me a lot more, and makes me feel good in a lot of other ways, as well.