Massage therapy can be defined as the manipulation of soft tissue. Massage therapy has physical, physiological, and psychological effects, in other words, it can affects the mind, body, and spirit. The word "massage" comes from the French meaning "friction or kneading", the Arabic word "massa" meaning "to touch, feel, or handle", and the Latin "massa" meaning "mass, dough". An older origin may have been from the Hebrew "me-sakj" meaning "to anoint with oil" and the ancient Greek "anatripsis" or Latin "frictio" was the word for massage.
During a massage, soft tissue, consisting of muscles, tendons, ligaments, skin, lymphatic vessels, organs and other connective tissue, can be in manipulated in a number of ways. These include with pressure,
…show more content…
A Swedish massage session is typically very gentle and relaxing. The session usually consists of long smooth strokes with kneading & circular movements that work on the superficial layers of the muscle. There are many different kinds of massage - such as Deep Tissue Massage, Neuromuscular Massage, Sports Massage, Heated Stone Massage, Myofascial Tissue Release and Prenatal Massage just to name a few. Each modality, or type of massage, is used for to achieve different results and treat different conditions. Usually modalities are blended together in one session to attain the different results requested by the client. The goal of your massage will determine what modality or modalities the massage therapist will use. The question to ask yourself is - "what is my goal for my massage session?" Is the massage for relaxation, stress management, relief from chronic pain, rehabilitation of an injury, relief from frequent headaches, or improvement of flexibility and range of motion. Let your massage therapist know what kind of results you are looking for and let her/him do the