Available for around thousand years, massage is a process by which therapists with the help of forearms, palms and foot manipulates the muscles of the body providing complete relaxation and a feeling of well-being. Being one of the oldest and simplest forms of therapy available, massaging heals the body with joint pains and other muscle pains enhancing circulation and easiness.
Massaging is carried out in a professional and comfortable setting either by lying on a massage table, massage chair or on a mat on the floor. It depends on the type of massage you opt for. The massage is also subjugated to being fully or partly undressed. If it is partly then you might cover yourself with towels or some white comfortable sheets. People carrying out the massaging include therapists, athletic trainers and physical therapists. The therapists are professional people who will work in accordance to the body type and the pain that you have in order to give you maximum relaxation and peace of mind.
In the massaging, oils play an important role. There are many types of different oils available including coconut oil, olive oil, almond oil, macadamia oil, sesame oil, pecan oil, and mustard oil. For aromatherapy, a special kind of oil is used giving a blissful experience. Shiatsu is completely oil free and body pains are relieved by the use of palms and the use of ancient acupressure is used to ease out the stiffness and pain.
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Types of massage available widely are
• Aromatherapy Massage
• Balinese Massage
• Swedish Massage
• Deep Tissue Massage
• Shiatsu Massage (oil Free)
• Invigorating Back & Shoulder Massage
• Mother-To-Be Massage
• Tummy trim
• Tantric massage
• Foot Reflexology
Providing an exalting and thrilling experience, massage relieves stress and encourages relaxation. Strengthening of immune system is one of the major healers of massage which allows many people to go for the massage therapy. When you massage a painful arthritic joint, you help the blood circulation to the joint, and this aids healing. Another benefit is that the muscles relax, and this relieves pain too, because tight muscles around the joint make it even more painful.
Although you can massage painful joints yourself, for best results visit a massage therapist, because the therapist will know the best way to massage your hands, or whichever joints are affected. Ask to be shown some easy massage techniques that you can perform at home. Massage therapy can’t reverse arthritis, but many people find that they can keep arthritis at bay with massage therapy.
Massage therapy can help even more if you massage your joints with essential oils. Essential oils are fragrant oils which are refined from plants, roots, and trees. Pain relieving essential oils for arthritis treatment include ginger, lavandin, and eucalyptus. For an arthritis joint massage, very small quantities of pure essential oils (about one drop per teaspoon) are added to a carrier oil like apricot or almond oil. You can make up your own massage oil from essential oils and a carrier oil, and can use it to massage painful joints twice a day.
Not only do the essential oils smell wonderful, but they’re also very relaxing.
As with massage therapy, it’s best to get advice and a couple of treatments from a professional aroma therapist at the beginning, and then you can continue the treatment with essential oils at home. Although massage therapy and essential oils massage therapy are not a cure for arthritis, they do relieve the pain. These treatments can also help you to regain and maintain movement in your joints, so that you live your life.
If you’re fortunate enough to have somebody else available to trade off massages a shoulder massage is a great starting point. Get behind the person and put your palms on the back of their shoulders just across the shoulder blades. Wrap your fingers down surrounding the top of the shoulder and down into the collar bone. Extend your thumbs down to the spine. Here is the base position for a good shoulder massage, you might move both hands along the individuals back utilizing the same technique I will describe here and it will work fine. One note will be to make certain you always massage away from the heart, for those times you massage over the persons heart you should massage in a pattern that moves to the head. When you are massaging below the heart you need to massage in the pattern that moves towards their tail bone.
To get started take your thumbs as low down their spine as you’re able to move them without moving your hands and then press into the persons back lightly, and start sliding your thumbs up to the side of the spine. As you do this, press your palms to the persons back and roll them to the spine then up combined with the thumbs. Take your fingers along the collar bone and slides them out to the shoulder then curl them just a little. While you curl your fingers, move your palms out to the shoulders still pressing to their back and move your thumbs to the index fingers (where it will be should you be giving a salute).
At this point press your palms down and slide your thumbs down, moving your palms and thumbs along the shoulder blades, while your index fingers slide in curled position across the top of the shoulders. Finally slide both hands gently back into the position you began, the motion should complete a circle and you will find yourself where you started out. At that point just keep repeating at whatever speed and strength the person you are massaging is comfortable with, don’t press too rigorously or you could cause a bruise.
Depending on how good of a grip you might have you can use the three parts of the hand separately or altogether. For example if you are massaging a person’s small of the back it’s usually easier to only use the thumbs instead of the rest of the fingers. For a person’s middle back about heart level it’s usually simpler to just press you.