Swedish Massage is a system of manipulations on the muscles and connective tissues of the body using lotions or oils for the purpose of relaxation, rehabilitation or health maintenance. Swedish massage therapy is comprised of five basic strokes and their variations: effleurage (kneading), petrisage (stroking), tapotement (striking)and friction (rubbing) with vibration added later.
The many benefits of Swedish massage may include :
Swedish Massage Framework
A Swedish physiologist and gymnastics instructor named Peter Henry Ling developed his own system of body manipulation classifying the massage techniques used by Greeks and Romans, in ancient times. Ling’s system called Medical Gymnastics it is believe could be that now is known as Swedish massage.
In the United States, massage only constituted approximately 10% of the techniques used by Ling when providing treatments.
Afterward, a Dutch physician, named Johan George Mezger, promoted Swedish massage using a medical model and introducing and popularizing the use of French terminology to describe the system of the basic strokes, under which he systemized massage as we know it today, as Swedish or classic massage.
Someway, the term Swedish Movement System was transposed to Swedish Massage System sometime during the second half of the 19th century.
Even so, by 1890 a number of physicians and non-physicians had published books describing in detail with text and illustrations, the massage movements we now refer to as Swedish massage.
Swedish, or classic, massage was used extensively in a number of sanitariums, including the great one run by John Harvey Kellogg, M.D., and other establishments in Europe and North America. Swedish massage represents one form of Western methods of massage
In Deep Tissue, massage techniques are used to directly affect the deeper muscles and connective tissues of the body: warming, stretching, release through massage, using movement and pressure to reshape and realigns the muscles.
