By Lynn Nguyen


People long ago have used massage well before the introduction of modern medicine, well before surgery, drugs or needles. People used massage to heal their aliments.

In many aspects, massage is the most natural of natural remedies. Touching your body where it hurts seems to be a basics instinct, like our innate fight or flight mechanism. And many health practitioners claim that massage, no matter how superficial or deep, provides powerful results.

Development of massage came over time. There are several types of massage techniques and movements, so we listed the most frequently used in our office.

SWEDISH MASSAGE uses several strokes to smooth tension and heal soreness. The common strokes or moevments are: effleurage or stroking; petrissage or muscle lifting and grabbing; friction or use of fingers and thumbs working the deep thick muscles; tapotement or chopping tapping or beating movements; and vibration for finger pressed firmly on the muscles, then the area is stimulated quickly for several seconds. The effleurage and tapoement strokes are the most popular.

DEEP TISSUE MASSAGE is used for chronic muscle tension below the thicker body tissues. The body has five layers of muscle in the back. Swedish works only couple of the first layers but doesn't get deep. But deep tissue massage work against the grain of the muscle by using slow deep movements or friction. Massage therapist use the whole hand, thumbs and even elbows to apply pressure. This massage is best on muscle spasm release and prolonged injuries.

SPORTS MASSAGE is designed to help you train better, and recover quicker, .whether you're a world class athlete or a weekend enthusiast. The techniques are similar to those in Swedish and Deep tissue massage, but can be altered to meet an individual athletes needs. Pre-competition massage can help warm up muscles and improve circulation before competition, and also energize or relax an athlete and help him or her focus on the competition. Post-competition massage can help rid toxins and waste products out of the body and increase recovery time.

NEUROMUSCULAR MASSAGE is a deep tissue massage used to target a specific muscle group. This technique is used for increased blood flow reduce pain and pressure in the muscles or nerves from injuries. Trigger point release and muscle adhesion break ups are performed with this massage. This massage is best used with spinal manipulation, physical therapy and other physical medicine techniques.




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