wedish massage helps relax and boosts your client’s metabolism. It could mean different experience and impact, depending on the body of the client. The use of light touch with gentle stimulation is one of the effective techniques in Swedish massage that helps produce reflexive muscles.
The technique could also increase the blood flow, which in turn, increases the supply of oxygen, and removes wastes from the muscle.
Types of Physiological Effects
It’s important to remember that your blood flow during massage is three times higher as compared to when the muscle is at rest. The message ultimately helps soothe the stiffness, soreness, and pain after an exhausting workout.
Depending on the type of massage the client chooses, the central nervous system could either be stimulated or soothed. Friction, percussion, vibration, light rubbing, and rolling are some of the techniques that massage therapists use to stimulate the nervous system. And light stroking of the skin and pétrissage are some soothing techniques.
Also, autonomic nervous system functions as either sympathetic nervous system with the mechanized ‘fight or flight response’ or parasympathetic nervous system which deals with the after effects and helps return the body to a state of normalcy. The entire purpose of the sympathetic nervous system is to alert the body through adrenaline and epinephrine.
All massage therapists direct the flow of blood towards the heart. As a response, dilation occurs and varies in time, depending on the manner and severity of skin stimulation. Meanwhile, the percussion technique is also used to contract the blood vessels, causing gradual relaxation.
Pain Relief and Management
Pain-spasm-pain cycle method is used to notify and fight ischemia. Massage therapists should solely focus on how best to increase mobility in a certain part of the body and to identify the exact area where pain is originating. It essentially helps reduce the lactic amount accumulated within the muscle.
Similarly, the gate control theory process is used as a pain management tool by massage therapists to transmit, assess, and prevent the pain sensation in the affected area of the client that could reach the central nervous system.
Difference between Pain and Stress
The massage therapist should always be wary of the client’s psychological and physiological repercussions. Massage essentially indicates and reduces the level of negative stress by either getting rid of all the toxins or through a personal treatment that involves stimulation of the body. Pain, on the other hand, inherently occurs due to damage to the tissue.
Furthermore, the massage therapist understands the response time of pain reaction to assess the level of stress that could be exerted to achieve hormonal balance within the body.
Role of Dopamine and Serotonin
Dopamine and serotonin are directly responsible for elevation of mood in the clients. Dopamine helps maintain emotional, motor skills, and feelings of pleasure or pain under control.
Serotonin neurotransmitter, however, regulates moods, behavior, appetite, and memory. Massage ultimately helps increase and maintains the nominal levels of these neurotransmitters.
Massage Movement Techniques
Touching, gliding, percussion, friction, kneading, and joint movements are some of the basic massage movements applied by therapists around the world. For instance, touch refers to the act when the therapist’s hand touches the client’s body.
Gliding
One of the gliding techniques the massage therapists use to assess the smoothing energy field that surrounds the body is ethereal stroking. Another gliding technique, such as feather stroking, revolves around long and gentle strokes on the body. The effleurage technique is similarly applied for long strokes on the body but with increased intensity.
Pétrissage
Petrissage movement technique is a delicate and sensitive process used by professional massage therapists to raise or lift the skin to get fluid in the deep tissue muscles.
Circular and Cross-fiber Friction
The movement where the hands and fingers of the client are crossed over in a circular shape is called circular friction, whereas the cross-fiber friction refers to the sharp and transverse direction of the muscle.
Percussion
Percussion techniques serve to stimulate the body and require great strength. Slapping, tapping, cupping, hacking, and beating are some of the common types of percussion movements.
Passive and Active Joint Movements
Passive joint movement technique is specifically applied when the client is in a relaxed state of mind. And is different from the active joint movement, and grants the therapist the ability to contract the muscle to perform the required movement.
Heat and Cold Applications
Heat applications, like hot baths and towels, are used by the massage therapist to stimulate the blood circulation and alleviate pain. And direct cold applications, like wet clothes, are applied to reduce body temperature, diminish circulation, and numb a certain area of the body.
Leave a Reply
Your email is safe with us.