Why do we need a regular body massage?
Massage has many important health benefits. In fact, massage can help you maintain physical, mental and emotional well being, especially when it is part of your regular wellness routine.
The Health Benefits of Massage:
The Health Benefits of Massage:
- Massage calms the nervous system and promotes a sense of relaxation and well being.
- Massage reduces tension and anxiety.
- Massage improves blood circulation, which delivers oxygen and nutrients to the cells.
- Massage stimulates the lymphatic system, which carries away the body’s waste products.
- Massage prevents and relieves muscles cramps and spasms.
- Massage therapy can help with pain management in conditions such as arthritis, sciatica, muscle spasms.
Remind yourself of these health benefits if you start to feel guilty about getting massage!
Note: Massage is not a good idea if you have a fever, infections, inflammation, osteoporosis and other medical conditions. If you have any questions about whether a massage would be right for you, ask to speak to a massage therapist before you make your appointment.
- Swedish massage is the most commonly offered and best-known type of massage. If it's you're first time at the spa, Swedish massage is the perfect place to start.
- During Swedish massage, massage therapists use massage oils to facilitate smooth, gliding strokes called effleurage. Other classic Swedish massage moves include kneading, friction, stretching and (sometimes) tapping.
- Swedish massage uses firm but gentle pressure to promote relaxation, ease muscle tension and create other health benefits.
- Generally during Swedish massage you're nude underneath a towel or sheet. The therapist uncovers only the part of the body he/she is working on, a technique called "draping".
- You can keep your underwear on during Swedish massage, and many newcomers do.
- Feel free to state your preference for pressure during Swedish massage. It can range from light to firm. Swedish massage usually includes some deeper work on areas of specific muscle tension. If you want more intensive work and firmer pressure, get a deep tissue massage.
- Swedish massage is the foundation for other types of Western massage, including sports massage, deep tissue massage and aromatherapy massage.
- Shiatsu is an old, traditional, Japanese healing method. Shiatsu means “finger pressure.” But unlike the massage of the West, where kneading and friction is used, in shiatsu pressure and stretching is the key.
- The shiatsu practitioner uses palms, fingers, thumbs, knuckles, elbows, knees and the feet, to work on the body’s acupuncture points, along what they consider the body’s meridians or energy channels.
- It’s a form of “touch communication,” and is a safe and effective preventive medicine. It helps to balance a person’s energy flow, and strengthen the vital organs.
- In shiatsu, it is believed that disease is the result of blocked or unbalanced energy, so that it’s either depleted or over-active. Shiatsu shares the same view as Chinese acupuncture. There are two energy forces, the Yin, or negative, and the Yang, or positive.
- Basically, the human body is looked upon as a microcosm of the universe, the meridians vital organs are seen as governed by Five Elements and by Yin and Yang.
- They believe that in a healthy person no element is dominant or deficient in relation to the other. So blocked or unbalanced energy allows disease to take over, and it is either depleted, or kyoto, or overactive-jitsu.