What is Massage?
The healing art of massage therapy spans a wide variety of therapeutic approaches, working to improve an individual’s health and well-being through the hands-on manipulation of muscles and other soft tissues of the body. Although massage affects the body as a whole, it particularly influences the activities of the musculoskeletal, circulatory, lymphatic and nervous systems.
A New Era of Bodywork
Massage can do wonders to enhance your life. Massage gets your blood flowing. It lengthens short muscles and loosens tight connective tissue. If you moved better, had fewer headaches, less tension in your back and shoulders or reduced low back and leg pain, wouldn't you be happier? Feel better? Think more clearly? Could you relax easier after work? The answer is quite possibly YES! Take advantage of these benefits and more with massage.
Why Massage Might Be Right for You
Today more than ever people are using a combination of Eastern and Western medical practices to find cures for stress and medical pain. As stress in the workplace and at home increases, it leads to wear on the body, mind and spirit. Negative effects may emerge possibly resulting in self detachment, physical pain and depression to name a few. In these pages we will answer some basic questions about massage therapy and also provide information on how massage integration can help.
What is the Origin of Therapeutic Massage?
The origins of therapeutic massage are rooted in the common instinctual response to hold and rub a hurt or pain. It is found in all cultures as an integral part of health care.
The therapeutic massage methods used today have both Eastern and Western origins. The first written records of massage date back over 4,000 years to early Chinese medicine and ancient Ayurvedic medicine of India, making it one of the oldest known health care practices. Shiatsu, acupressure and reflexology spring from these Eastern sources as do other contemporary methods.
Western civilizations were introduced to therapeutic massage by Greek and Roman physicians. Modern Western massage is credited primarily to Peter Henrik Ling, a Swedish athlete. His approach, which combines hands-on techniques with active and passive movements, became known as Swedish massage, and is still one of the most commonly used methods in the Western world.
By the end of the 19th century, a significant number of American doctors were practicing this manual technique and the nation’s first massage therapy clinic opened its doors to the public. However, in the early 20th century, the rise of “modern” technology and prescription drugs began to overshadow massage therapy. For the next several decades, unfortunately, massage remained dormant and only a few therapists continued to practice the “ancient” technique.
During the 1970’s, both the general public as well as the medical profession began to take notice of alternative medicine and mind-body therapies. Therapeutic massage is now experiencing a renaissance and is regaining its rightful place among health care practitioners.
Massage therapists held about 120,000 jobs in 2007-2008 in the United States (source: US Department of Labor). About 64 percent were self-employed. There are many more people who practice massage therapy as a secondary source of income who were not included in these statistics. As a result, some industry sources estimate that more than 200,000 people practice massage therapy in some capacity. The number of massage therapists is growing rapidly to keep up with the more than 80 million massage therapy appointments made every year.
