Swedish massage techniques

About Massage

Massage is one of the oldest medicinal techniques in theworld. Hippocrates wrote about massage in his books, some 4.000 years BC andadvised doctors to know about this technique. Modern massage is not justrubbing of the body, but more Somatic therapy or bodywork.

One of the popular massages is Swedish but there are many othertypes of massage, including deep and soft tissue massages, connective tissuemassage and various others. Massage can increase your flexibility and range ofmotion, decrease time needed for healing and stress in your life.It has many benefits for the well being of a person and many think of massageas a tool to relax and relieve negative effects of stress to the body.

Swedish massage’s main goal is to increase level of oxygenin the blood and release accumulated toxins from the muscles in the body. Asthe result of this massage, the body flushes the waste to the blood and then eliminatesthe toxins. Additional benefits of this massage include stretching of the muscles,stimulation of the skin and stimulation and calming of the nerves in the skin.

Different Techniques of Swedish Massage

Effleurage, petrissage, friction, tapoment and shaking arethe techniques of Swedish massage.

Effleurage is performed using a thumb pads or whole handsand the strokes go from the neck to the hips, down the back. If it’s performedon one of the limbs, this massage is done from the fingers or the toes towardsthe heart. Masseuse use this technique to learn about the body of the patientin front of him and the patient get used to be touched during the massage this way.

Petrissage involves lifting, kneading and squeezing of themuscles. This technique is efficient to release the toxins and at the same timeto increase circulation of lymph and blood.

Friction enables ease in the movements of the muscles andjoints. The masseuse use either circular or transverse movements and thus releaseknot adhesions in the muscles with his thumbs or fingertips.

Tapoment technique includes tapping or striking of the muscles,usually with the edge of the hands or in some cases with the fingertips. This techniqueis known to relax tight and spastic muscles.

Shaking or vibration is usually done at the end of themassage. Therapist applies some pressure to the patient’s back or to his limbsand the effects depend on the amount of applied pressure. More pressure usuallycauses stimulation of the muscles, while less applied pressure relax the musclesand rest the body.