Massage: A 5,000 Year-Old Healing Art

Massage has been around for at least 5,000 years. Just about every other culture practiced some form of body manipulation to ease pain and prevent or cure illness. Long before aspirin and heating pads were available, people have treated their sore bodies with a massage. When a caveman twisted one of his knees, he rubbed it. When an Egyptian princess had pain in her temples, she rubbed them. Massage is probably the most natural of natural remedies, and it can also be a powerful healer.

People all over the world have developed special massage techniques. Many of these require years of training to master and can't be done on yourself. However, there are self-massage techniques that you can use to help with many common health concerns. For instance, you can rub away stress, headaches, restless legs, muscle cramps with techniques that require only practice, a warm, quiet area and a little massage oil, which you can even make yourself in your kitchen.

In the 19th century, a Swede named Peter Hendrik Ling developed what is now the most widely known and studied form of massage in the Western world: Swedish massage. Many massage experts believe that the Swedish massage offer benefits including: Reduced muscle tension; Stimulated or soothed nervous system; Enhanced skin condition; Improved blood circulation; Better digestion and intestinal function; Increased mobility in joints; Relief of chronic pain; Reduced swelling and inflammation.

A Swedish massage therapist uses soothing, tapping and kneading strokes to work the entire body, relieve muscle tension and loosen sore joints. The technique uses five basic strokes. They are:

Effleurage: A French word that means "stroking." It's a warm-up technique that lets a person get used to the feel of the therapist's hands. Experts say that the gliding stroke primarily improves circulation.

Petrissage: A technique in which you lightly grab and lift muscles, pulling them away from the bones. You then "knead" the muscles by rolling and squeezing them. Massage therapists believe this stroke helps relieve sore muscles by clearing away lactic acid, a by-product created by your muscles when they work extra hard. Petrissage may also increase circulation to muscle tissue.

Friction: Involves using thumbs and fingertips to work deep circles into the thickest parts of muscles and around the joints. These circular motions may help break adhesions, knots of tissue that form when muscle fibers bind together. Experts say friction may also make soft tissue and joints more flexible.

Tapotement: Includes all of the chopping, beating and tapping strokes in Swedish massage. A few seconds of tapotement can invigorate your muscles, stimulate them and give you a burst of energy. But if you use the technique for a longer period, it will begin to fatigue and thereby relax the muscle, a welcome result for muscles that are cramped, strained or in spasm.


Vibration: Strokes that involve pressing fingers or flattened hands firmly on a muscle, then shaking the area rapidly for a few seconds. This may help stimulate your nervous system, experts say, and could boost circulation and improve the function of your glands.

Massage may slow the body's release of the stress hormone cortisol. A massage before bedtime also seems to lengthen the deepest phase of sleep, allowing your muscles and other body parts more time to regenerate. In addition, massage may increase your body's production of the hormone, serotonin, which can improve your mood, boost your immune system and even prevent migraine.

Below are 3 other common forms of massage:

Deep tissue massage: Targets chronic tension in muscles that lie far below the surface of the body. Deep muscle techniques usually involve slow strokes, direct pressure or friction movements that go across the grain of the muscles. Massage therapists will use their fingers, thumbs or occasionally even elbows to apply the needed pressure. A therapist may use Swedish massage in combination with deep tissue.

Sports massage: Designed to help you train better, whether you're a national champion or a weekend athlete. The techniques are similar to those in Swedish and deep tissue massage, but sports massage has been adapted to meet the athlete's special needs. Pre-event massage can help warm up muscles and improve circulation before competition. It can also energize or relax an athlete and help him focus on the competition. Post-event massage can push waste products out of the body and improve recovery. Sports massage also help athletes prevent or work through minor aches and pains accumulated during training and can allow them to train more effectively. It also helps athletes recover from injuries and helps in rehabilitation.

Neuromuscular massage: A form of deep tissue massage that is applied to individual muscles. It is used to increase blood flow, reduce pain and release pressure on nerves caused by injuries to muscles and other soft tissue. Neuro-muscular massage helps release trigger points, intense knots of tense muscle that can also "refer" pain to other parts of the body. For instance, relieving a tense trigger point in your back could help ease pain in your shoulder or reduce headaches.