(ARA) – Your shoulders are tight, your head throbs, your heart pounds and you don’t recall the last night you slept peacefully. Whether it’s because your 401(k) statement just arrived or you’re dreading the up-coming holiday shopping season, you – like millions of other Americans these days – are probably feeling economy-induced stress.
Whatever its source, [...]

Swedish is the most common style practiced among massage therapists.
The modern form was developed in Sweden around the beginning of the 19th century, though the origin is disputed. Many attribute the usual techniques to Per Henrik Ling, a Swedish gymnastics instructor who developed the style for athletes. Others give credit to a Dutch-born physician by [...]

There’s a good reason massage therapists charge what they do. They’ve undergone intensive, long-term training that involves learning anatomy and physiology. They’ve practiced for months or longer, hours per day, to develop the understanding and the skills to detect body problems. They’ve learned a demanding trade.
But sometimes dedicated amateurs can emulate their skill to a [...]

Swedish massage and similar techniques seek to stimulate the surface and relax muscles that are readily accessible. Deep tissue massage tries to go further, to get down to layers where trigger points (muscle knots, localized pain areas) and other problems may reside.
There are a number of specific techniques utilized to accomplish that aim. Classic movements [...]

Effleurage is one of the most common massage techniques employed. Using a succession of light or deep stroking or gliding motions, the masseuse or masseur floats across the contours of the body. The therapist uses a flat surface, such as the hand or forearm. He or she moves with low-friction over large expanses of skin, [...]

Among the many health benefits of massage is one that will surprise the novice: the ability to manipulate fascia. Fascia are body components located between the skin and the underlying muscle. It’s here that inflammation and injuries can produce damage that can be encouraged to heal by a good massage.
The fascia form a system of [...]

American missionaries invaded the Hawaiian islands in 1820 and, as ships came and went with supplies (and sometimes natives eager to leave), the native massage practice spread to the west. That art is called Lomilomi.
‘Lomi’ is the Hawaiian word for ‘rub’, and hence Lomilomi (’masseur’ or ‘masseuse’) has come to mean the practice of massage [...]

Most massage techniques make heavy use of the therapist’s hands and arms. Occasionally sticks will be used for certain specialized applications. But ‘recently’ a new tool has been added to the toolkit – hot stones. ‘Recently’ is in quotes since the technique has actually been practiced for thousands of years. But only in the past [...]

Many massage techniques that later became popular in various parts of Asia actually originated in ancient India. One of the oldest is marma-point massage. Used for thousands of years, it has now made its way into Western spas where it’s a great favorite of clients.
As with many Eastern techniques the focus is on the integration [...]

Though the roots of Shiatsu massage go back centuries, the practice first became widely popular around the beginning of the 20th century. Then in 1940, the Shiatsu style of massage got a big boost with the founding of the Japan Shiatsu College.
Shiatsu differs from traditional Western (typically Swedish) massage in its emphasis on focused pressure, [...]