What are Massags?

According to Wikipedia, “massage therapy is the practice of soft tissue manipulation with physical, functional, and in some cases psychological purposes and goals.”  Massage therapy is applied using the hands, elbows, feet, or the use of instruments to provide a therapeutic effect on the body.  Massags are done utilizing different techniques such as effleurage, pettrissage, kneading, tapotement, trigger point release, myofascial release, and many more.  Massage therapy may be performed virtually anywhere such as spas, hospitals, chiropractic offices, gyms and wellness centers, physical therapy centers, corporate events, and health fairs.  There are many different forms of massage therapy and they include Swedish, deep tissue, hot-stone, pregnancy, geriatric, Reiki, Shiatsu, cranial-sacral massage, and many more.  For instance, Swedish massage is performed using a technique called effleurage.  Effleurage incorporates the use of long gliding strokes to decrease heart rate and increase metabolism, and blood flow (circulation).  A deep tissue massage uses more muscle stripping/trigger point release, and static pin-point roulement to break up adhesions and scar tissue; this may be done with the hands, elbows, or with the assistance of massage tools such as t-bars.  These treatments are shorter in duration usually lasting 15-30 minutes since rehabilitation is the primary goal.  These massags are typically not relaxing and in fact might entail great pain and/or inflammation due to the tissue response from the correction of faulty mechanics within the body.  This inflammation and pain should only last 2-3 days maximum and follow with greater periods of relief.  In this instance, therapists should instruct their clients of this phenomenon and educate them on the proper at-home icing protocol.  This will ensure trust within the therapist and ease the mind of the client currently suffering from pain and discomfort.