The art of massage
It is a gentle art but remember that only 10% of the work is driven by technique, 90% is love, passion and commitment!
If you feel love and compassion for the patients you are treating, if you perceive in them an invaluable energy, if you are grateful for their trust in you and for the freedom to work on them with your energy then you’re on the right path to become a great massage therapist!
BASIC CONCEPTS OF MASSAGE
The massage is the oldest and simplest of the therapies. It carries benefits to health because the skin is strictly linked to the nervous system and almost all human body organs!
Massage can truly represents a reaction to stress, to relieve pain or tension, it works mainly on the muscles and tendons and particularly concerns the hemolymphatic balance! It loosens tense muscles, tones the withered and tired skin, revitalizes blood circulation in small blood vessels and raises pain threshold!
It helps the stomach digestion, restarting lazy intestines and relieving headaches. It activates the local circulation, nurturing tissues, while achieving a larger drain of tinned poisons in the cells, it stimulates lymphatic flow, and stretches the connective tissue of the joints! Despite the many benefits, massage is not complicated at all, everyone can learn how to do it because it is fundamentally just an extension of a gesture we do instinctively. You have to follow ground rules!
The massage should never be executed traumatically and should not cause bruises or excessive pain!
MASSAGE SET UP
To set up a proper “massage operation”, you need a cot or a table on which a person should be able to relax!
The height of the bed should be approximately at the height of the operator’s pelvis, because it is extremely important that those who perform the massage, stand in a convenient and relaxed position, because all tensions must be removed to avoid the passage of negative energies, which could render worthless the beneficial effects of massage.
To execute correctly a massage, it is critical that the operator maintains your back straight, not to assume wrong gestures that can damage your spine, using body weight to give rhythm and depth to the movement!
Legs should be spread apart and knees bent in order to lean and avoid being in the same position for too long.
The operator must also take care of the his/her personal hygiene, short nails, always wash hands before and after the massage, wear comfortable, cleaned and ironed clothes, and possibly soft-colored. He/she should wear comfortable shoes or clogs! Going barefoot is likewise optimal!
Hands and wrists must be naked, devoid of rings, bracelets, watches, various jewelry.
It is very important to create a certain feeling with the person undergoing the massage, you have to evaluate the personality of the subject, its physical structure and operate accordingly!
As I said before, it is fundamental that the massage is performed in a warm and comfortable atmosphere, soft lighting and possibly with a light background music, have ready a blanket or a towel to cover body parts not interested by the massage, one or two pillows to put under the head or feet, depending on the case, a cotton sheet to cover the bed! In the market, there are 60 or 90-centimeter roll paper bed-sheets. The latter are great for a single-use!
Another critical success factor of a massage is the use of natural products, skin moisturizers to ease hand sliding on the body, highly nurturing products for dry skins are essential to be used, firming products for those with flabby and loosen tissues, slimming or anti-cellulitis products for people suffering from fat and lymphatic stagnation and so on.
A complete massage lasts 60 minutes and is structured as following:
- 10 minutes feet massage
- 20 minutes leg massage
- 5 minutes abdomen massage
- 10 minutes to massage both arms (5 minutes per arm)
- 15 minutes back/neck massage
These time schedules are just illustrative; you can freely desire to devote more time to a body part more essential for you, and treat it more intensively.
Education period requires more time though! Just think that at the beginning of my career it took me an hour and a half to do a massage! So please take your time while watching the videos I prepared for you; when you will know how to execute all techniques as I have taught, you will no longer have to look at this guide, you simply should work within a 60 minute-period!
Massage basic techniques
There are countless techniques but they can be grouped in four main categories:
Rubbing – Kneading – Easing of tensions – Rebalancing
These maneuvers must recall each other and also interweave accordingly with a precise logic, depending on the aimed objective.
Rubbing
Rubbing or slipping of hands on the skin surface, must be performed slowly and softly. This maneuver is run with hand palmar surface including fingertips, it is aimed at taking a confident contact with the skin and to smooth the oil, causing vasodilation of the superficial layer of the skin. The effects are the mobilization of tissue layers that may be adherent to each other due to nervous, tendinous muscular tensions.
Kneading
Kneading is an extraordinary maneuver that releases tensions, decontracts muscles, relaxes body and stirs the massaged areas reactivating the deepest blood nutrition. It dissolves cellulite nodes, facilitates the secretion of sweat and sebaceous glands.
Easing of tensions
Stretchings are perfect to relax muscles and joints. The feeling is very pleasant and releases elasticity and lightness to the treated part!
REBALANCING
This is a maneuver that restores equilibrium to the massaged part and represents the natural closing of the massage of every treated body part!
Francesco Ciaccia
We’ve prepared a few step by step demonstration videos to let you discover how to immediately put these techniques into practise.
You’ll find all the materials clicking on the green button below:
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