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Practical Information on Massage Therapy
Below is more or less a list of the benefits and contraindications of massage. Although this is important and valuable to know, the true merit of massage is in how it helps you focus on what is important to you. Therapeutic massage can help relieve a muscle spasm that prevents you from tending your garden. Or it can relieve the stress that you accumulate throughout the days at work, so you can live your life to the fullest.
The following is derived from my own study, Mike Bigelow's The Art of Massage and Mosby's Fundamentals of Therapeutic Massage.
PHYSICAL Benefits *Increase in circulation of blood and lymph fluids. *Relaxes nervous system and reduces stress. *Relief of muscle spasm and tension. *Increases joint flexibility and range of motion. *Promotes deeper and easier breathing. *Reduces blood pressure. *Increases the excretion of fluids and waste products improving digestion. *Nourishes the skin. *Improves posture and body awareness. *Speeds recovery period from physical exercise by flushing the muscles of lactic acid. *Improves the healing of pulled muscles and sprained ligaments by reducing spasm, pain, swelling, and reduces formation of scar tissue *Strengthens immune system, thus helping to prevent disease *Provides nutrition for muscles, tissues and joints
MENTAL and EMOTIONAL Benefits *Helps create a relaxed state of alertness. *Reduces mental stress creating a calmer mind. *Sensitizes one to the body, thus creating a greater ability to monitor stress signals and respond appropriately. *Increases capacity for clear thinking. *Helps to satisfy the need for caring and nurturing touch. *Creates a feeling of well-being. *Helps enable the ease of emotional expression. *Reduces anxiety. *Increases awareness of the body-mind connection. *Creates a sense of being unified and in harmony. *Increases energy flow at all levels.
Contraindications to Massage Sandy Fritz defines contraindication as, "any condition that renders a particular treatment improper or undesirable." Although, many conditions can still be treated, caution must be exercised. The following list of contraindications to massage is derived from The Ontario Model. Please consult your physician if you have any doubts about a condition.
*Acute-stage pneumonia *Advanced kidney failure *Advanced respiratory failure *Diabetes with complications *Eclampsia-toxemia in pregnancy *Hemophilia *Hemorrhage (or bruising) *Liver failure *Post-injury to head or neck (including stroke) *Postmyocardial infarction (heart attack) *Severe atherosclerosis *Severe hypertentsion (if unstable) *Shock (all types) *Significant fever (higher than 101 F) *Some acute conditions that require first aid or medical attention *Some highly metastatic cancers not judged to be terminal *Systemic contagious/infectious condition
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