Experts estimate that upwards of ninety percent of disease is stress-related. And perhaps nothing ages us faster, internally and externally, than high stress. Massage is an effective tool for managing this stress, which translates into:
- Decreased anxiety
- Enhanced sleep quality
- Greater energy
- Improved concentration
- Increased circulation
- Reduced fatigue
Massage can also help specifically address a number of health issues. Bodywork can:
- Alleviate low-back pain and improve range of motion
- Assist with shorter, easier labor for expectant mothers and shorten maternity hospital stays
- Ease medication dependence
- Enhance immunity by stimulating lymph flow—the body's natural defense system
- Exercise and stretch weak, tight, or atrophied muscles
- Help athletes of any level prepare for, and recover/rehabilitate from, strenuous workouts or injury
- Improve the condition of the body's largest organ—the skin
- Increase joint flexibility
- Lessen depression and anxiety
- Promote tissue regeneration, reducing scar tissue and stretch marks
- Pump oxygen and nutrients into tissues and vital organs, improving circulation
- Reduce postsurgery adhesions and swelling
- Reduce spasms and cramping
- Relax and soften injured, tired, and overused muscles
- Release endorphins—amino acids that work as the body's natural painkiller
- Relieve migraine pain
- Slow the progression of an illness
Massage manipulations introduce mechanical forces into the soft tissues, stimulating various physiologic response. Not all tissue is affected the same way by each type of force. The compression, tension, bending, shear and torsion (the common strokes in Swedish and Therapeutic Massage) are mechanical forces that have therefore their own way in which they produce specific therapeutic benefits.