Massage has been accepted as a healing process in all parts of the world. It has been used as a therapy in the past as well as some of the frescos from Ancient Egypt show clearly that massage was used as a therapy in Ancient Egypt. There are references of athletes using massage in ancient Greece after grilling sporting competitions. Massage is a holistic way of lessening stress and healing body and is now becoming popular in all corners of the globe. There are many kinds of massages; however, all masseurs generally use five kinds of movements, each kind of move is given a specific name. These are Effleurage, Petrissage, Tapotement, Vibration and Friction. The motion of the hands used by a masseur is different under each technique.
All five types of movements of the hands are used by the masseur during a massage treatment. Long and firm strokes are used for Effleurage and sometimes the whole palm is used as well. Oil is applied with a light touch of hands and sometimes the light stroking movements are directed towards or away from the heart. Petrissage movement uses more force, smooth and firm pressure is applied intermittently. These two movements are generally used in many types of massages.
The other three movements used by masseurs are- Vibration, Friction and Tapotement. Both vibration and friction are easy to explain, during the vibration movement the whole body is shaken to produce vibration and Friction is a very intense movement applied on tiny areas of top tissues. All these movements are firm, but not very strong; however, when the masseur uses Tapotement the movements are very strong and occasionally pounding, frictions and beating are used to stimulate the body. Unlike the other four movements Tapotement is not used to relax the body, it is used to stimulate the body.
Massage is really something that can’t be ignored due to a huge number of benefits. Medical Science suggests to go for a massage for activating the energy again and get rid of unwanted problems.