Massage Therapy

You can make your hair grow healthy and long by adopting self-help scalp massage techniques. Scalp massage increases the blood flow thus preventing further hair loss and promoting healthy hair growth.

Use an essential oil suitable for your hair type for massaging purpose. For hair loss, use peppermint oil or rosemary oil. As you keep massaging, keep adding more oil to your finger tips.

While massaging, make small circles with your fingertips starting from the forehead hairline. Move gradually to the side and back of your head.

Then move towards the top of your head and massage your scalp in circles for 10 minutes.

Once you finish massaging with the oil, place a warm towel on your head for 10 minutes. Then wash away the oil with a good shampoo. Do it once in a week regularly.

See to it that the oil you use does not trigger any allergic reactions.  Just as you massage oil, you can also massage raw milk on your scalp and wash off after an hour. Drinking coconut water is good for your skin and hair.

Massage therapy is considered to be very helpful in reducing back pain. It is also a common alternative remedy popular among millions of people for back pain and other diseases related to the spine. Massage relaxes your mind, improves blood circulation, increases the supply of oxygen and removes waste products. It relieves muscle tension, inflammation, aches, stiffness and pain.

1. There are several hand held massagers which can be used easily by you on the affected muscles to get relief from pain.
2. Therapy cane (made of metal rod with wooden balls), available at medical supply stores is an excellent self-massage tool.
3. Tennis balls in an old sock, is another popular do-it-yourself back pain massage technique. Place two tennis balls inside a sock and knot the open end. Lie on your back and roll the ball. The socks should be placed such that the balls are on either sides of the spine. Keep the balls rolling up and down your back. Increase the pressure gradually.
4. Hot bath shower is also very helpful.

Massage therapy is very effective and provides great relief from abdominal cramps, menstrual cramps, cramps due to digestive problems and PMS.

The Qi Gong Abdominal Massage

The Chinese word “Qi” means “energy” and “Gong” means “practice”. Qi Gong is a Chinese exercise system that focuses on curing the disease by regulating the life-force energy.  There are several self-massage techniques in this system that gives instant relief from several ailments

1. Close your eyes and lie on your back on a flat surface. Take slow and deep breaths.
2. Place your right palm above your navel and your left hand above your right hand. Feel the warmth under your hands.
3. Slowly rub your stomach in a clockwise direction for 20-30 times.
4. Move your hands below your rib cage on either side of your torso. Massage towards the downward direction till the groin. Repeat for 5-6 times.
5. Move your hand to the centre of your abdomen and massage in the downward direction as in the previous step. Repeat it 5-6 times.
6. Now sit upright. As you inhale, face your head and neck towards your left shoulder. Exhale. Again inhale as you look over your right shoulder. Again exhale.
7. Rub the front of your lower torso over your hip bones onto the tops of your thighs. Do it with one long slow motion with open palm.
8. Go back to the initial position with your right hand over your navel and left hand over the right hand. Now rub your stomach in clockwise direction. 

With these simple massage techniques you could get great relief from muscle and joints pain. Massage improves the circulation, removes stiffness and relaxes your muscles and joints. These are massage techniques that you can use on yourself at home. You could use your hand or also buy an electric massager for the purpose.

1. Knead the muscle by holding it between your palms. Slightly squeeze and then release the muscles. Repeat this action with a regular movement. Continue kneading for 15-20 minutes at the same spot.
2. Yet another technique is to slightly glide your hand over the length of the muscle. Repeat this movement several times by applying oil or balm.
3. Apply a little vegetable oil or massage oil and make circular movements using your fingertips around the affected area. Do not massage directly on the joint but around the area for about five minutes for a few days.

Though massage can relieve you from pain and give temporary relief, it cannot reverse the causes of arthritis.

Massage is one of the do it yourself techniques to get instant relief from migraine related headaches. Here are few tips to massage migraine headaches.

There are migraine pressure points in your body which when pressed will reduce the pain. While massaging, the migraine pressure points are gently pressed and released in a rhythmic fashion which harmonizes the blood flow thereby reducing the pain.

1. Place your thumb pads at the base of the back of your skull. Press upward gently and breathe deeply as your fingers move. As you reach the deepest point, make circular motions with your thumb. Release the pressure. Repeat this five times.
2. There is a migraine pressure point located between your eyebrows on your forehead. Use your thumb or the first finger and massage inwards by breathing deeply. As you reach the deepest point, massage in circular motion. Repeat it 5-7 times.
3. The next pressure point is at the corner of your eyes. Using your thumb, apply pressure gradually inward; and as you reach the deepest point, make circular motion using your thumb. Repeat it for 5-7 times.

Apply pressure depending on the sensitivity of the migration point. The pressure should be applied and released gradually with your thumb. Limit the treatment for 30-40 minutes.

SWEDISH MASSAGE uses soothing, tapping and kneading strokes to work the entire body, relieving muscle tension and loosening sore joints. Swedish massage therapists use five basic strokes, which anyone can learn and use on themselves and others. They are effleurage (stroking); petrissage(muscles are lightly grabbed and lifted); friction (thumbs and fingertips work in deep circles into the thickest part of muscles; tapotement (chopping, beating, and tapping strokes); and vibration (fingers are pressed or flattened firmly on a muscle, then the area is shaken rapidly for a few seconds).

DEEP TISSUE MASSAGE targets chronic tension in muscles that lie far below the surface of your body. You have five layers of muscle in your back, for instance, and while Swedish massage may help the first couple of layers, it won’t do much directly for the muscle underneath. Deep muscle techniques usually involve slow strokes, direct pressure or friction movements that go across the grain of the muscles. Massage therapists will use their fingers, thumbs or occasionally even elbows to apply the needed pressure.

SPORTS MASSAGE is designed to help you train better, whether you’re a world champion or a weekend warrior. The techniques are similar to those in Swedish and deep tissue massage, but Greene says sports massage has been adapted to meet the athlete’s special needs. Pre-event massage can help warm up muscles and improve circulation before competition, but it can also energize or relax an athlete and help him focus on the competition. Post-event massage can push waste products out of the body and improve recovery. .

NEUROMUSCULAR MASSAGE is a form of deep tissue massage that is applied to individual muscles. It is used to increase blood flow, reduce pain and release pressure on nerves caused by injuries to muscles and other soft tissue. Neuromuscular massage helps release trigger points, intense knots of tense muscle can also “refer” pain to other parts of the body. Relieving a tense trigger point in your back, for example, could help ease pain in your shoulder or reduce headaches. .

ROLFING seeks to re-educate your body about posture. When posture is poor,  it can be reflected in a number of health problems, such as backaches, headaches and joint pain. Rolfing seeks to realign and straighten your body by working the myofascia, the connective tissue that surrounds your muscles and helps hold your body together. The ten-session, head-to-toe Rolfing program used to be rather painful, but Bienenfeld says new techniques that employ a therapist’s hands and elbows are quite tolerable and just as effective at improving your posture. .

HELLERWORK is an offshoot of Rolfing that adds both mental and movement re-education to the physical work. In a series of 11 sessions, you get instruction on how to break bad posture habits and you also get a massage that focuses on returning your muscles and other tissue to their proper positions. The result can be dramatic. “Sometimes we can greatly increase the spaces in your joints to the point where you may grown three-fourths of an inch taller before you’re done,” Bienenfeld says. .

CRANIOSACRAL THERAPY focuses on the skull and spinal column. Therapists use very gently pressure no more than the weight of a nickel to massage the bones, membranes and fluids that support and bathe your skull and spinal column. The theory is that these manipulations will reduce tension and counteract any physical trauma you may have experienced to your head over the years. .

ASTON_PATTERNING, another offshoot of Rolfing, was developed to teach people to maintain the improved alignment that they got through Rolfing. Aston-Patterning uses posture re-education and stresses physical fitness techniques. .

FELDENKRAIS treats every body as an individual work of art, with different postures and different movement patterns. Practioners seek to teach their clients ideal patterns of movement through slow, gentle, exercise-like sessions. It also includes a gentle massage that is designed to teach a person how to expand his range of motion.It’s often useful for victims of stroke or accidents who have lost movement. .

TRAGER uses gentle, rocking massage to help release the body’s harmful “holding patterns.” If you injured your left shoulder as a child, for example, you still may unconsciously carry it lower than your right shoulder, throwing your body off balance and robbing you of energy. Therapists employ very light, gentle shaking techniques that are unlike traditional Swedish-style massage. The idea is to make people more aware of their bodies, especially the way they move and hold themselves. For some reason, freeing people of physical holding patterns also seems to rid them of emotional stress that they associated with the prior injury.

The essence of understanding Ayurvedic massage is to understand prana. There is nothing more subtle in the body than prana. Even a subtle mental process like thinking can be grasped, reasoned with, or utilized. Not so with prana. It empowers the body/mind and is closely linked with the soul. Prana manifests as the three humors, or doshas, in Ayurveda. Without a good understanding of prana and its fivefold functions in the body, Ayurvedic massage cannot be understood as a therapeutic science. As with many of the methods coming from the Indian Vedic tradition, the presentation of massage from the Ayurvedic system is usually missing the subtle aspects that make it a true healing therapy. These secrets set Ayurvedic massage apart from other methods of bodywork along with its use of medicinal plants and oils. In general, Ayurvedic therapies can be divided into two distinct branches: building and reducing. Building therapies are designed to increase the strength of the patient. Reducing therapies are more complex and eliminate imbalances of the humors. Reduction therapy is usually given before building therapies to clean and prepare the system for regeneration and strengthening. Ayurvedic massage can be used in both ways - either to strengthen the system or to help clean and reduce excess in the system. What is the purpose of giving a massage? Do you wish to relax? To release tension? To strengthen the body? To help liberate toxins? To nourish the muscle and fat tissues? To maintain the three humors? To balance one of the humors? Are you using massage as part of a greater reducing therapy? Are you using massage as part of a strengthening program? To open and release deep connective tissue? To release trapped emotions and feelings? For any of the above reasons the constitution, or Prakruti, of the person must be determined, then the present state, or Vakruti, of the person must be determined. The purpose of giving a massage must then be defined according to a comparison of Prakruti and Vakruti. With this information an Ayurvedic therapy can be determined. Without understanding the therapeutic purpose you are not practicing Ayurveda. . There are four primary reasons for giving a massage in Ayurveda: - to eliminate toxins or excess - to purify - to rejuvenate - to maintain the strength. With the above information in mind it is important to realize that for massage to really be considered a method of healing someone there are a number of factors to understand. Ayurvedic massage is more advanced than Western massage therapeutically. Western massage is strong in techniques and is very sophisticated in this respect. But, its actual medical effectiveness is far less than massage used in Ayurveda. This is primarily because it uses herbs and oils to balance the three doshas according to the individuals needs, and it understands fully the marma points and the nadi meridian system that control the pranas.

Self-massages not only save time but also helps in exercising one’s body in particular hands and fingers. To temporarily improve your mental clarity and concentration, and to reduce tension or anxiety, try massaging your head and face.

1.Placing one index finger directly over the other, begin pressing and releasing, “walking” rhythmically from the hairline down the center of the forehead. Then, moving about one inch horizontally to the right of the centerline, press and release from the hairline downward. Move your fingers one inch to the left of the centerline, and repeat.

2. Beginning with your thumbs or index fingers at the center of your forehead, “draw” a line from the midline to the temples. Smooth the skin across the eyebrows, the center horizontal line of the forehead, and across the hairline.

3. Make small circles on each temple with your index fingers.

4. With your hands, make a “claw.” Make small circles into your scalp, slowly covering your entire scalp, lingering wherever it feels tight.

5. Using alternate index fingers, stroke down the bridge of the nose from the top to the tip.

6. With your thumbs or index fingers, gently stroke from the inner corner of the eye across the cheekbones to the ears. Repeat in horizontal strips as you work down the face.

7. Make circles into the well-developed muscles of the jaw. Linger on areas that are sore or tight.

Acupressure is similar to acupuncture except the hands are used instead of needles to stimulate flow of energy. Touching specific points along the meridians will activate nerves which send electrical impulses to the spinal cord, the lower centers of the brain and the areas of dysfunction.

Aura and chakra therapy / therapeutic touch and energetic hands on healing include techniques for working with and balancing the electromagnetic energies of the physical and etheric bodies as well as the endocrine glands.

Deep tissue utilizes techniques to affect the sub-layer of musculature and fascia which releases the chronic patterns of tension and injury to the body through the use of deep pressure and body positioning, working with the muscles, tendons, fascia and ligaments. Helps with chronic muscular pain, injury rehabilitation, arthritis and tendonitis.

Lymphatic compression uses techniques which stimulate the movement of lymphatic fluids in the body in order to assist in the cleansing of toxins and waste products, acts as an aid to blood circulation and strengthens the body’s defense mechanism and general immunity against disease.

Reflexology or zone therapy focuses on the reflex points on the feet and hands by applying firm pressure to specific nerve endings which in turn create a reflex response which stimulates vital body organs to return to optimal functioning.

Swedish / Esalen massage uses five main strokes to stimulate the circulation of blood through the soft tissues of the body. Through stroking and kneading, the body’s metabolic processes and blood circulation are stimulated, enhancing one’s sense of vitality, combined with active and passive movements of the joints to improve range of motion and muscle tone.

Trigger point therapy / myofascial soft tissue release is a non-invasive therapeutic modality for the relief and control of myofascial pain and dysfunction through the use of systematic compression, passive stretching and corrective exercise.

Massage is a holistic therapy. It has effect on both body and mind.Massage increases the circulation of blood and flow of lymph. The direct mechanical effect of rhythmically applied manual pressure and movement used in massage can dramatically increase the rate of blood flow. Also, the stimulation of nerve receptors causes the blood vessels (by reflex action) to dilate, which also facilitates blood flow. This has a profound effect on one’s health.

Health Benefits of Massage

The following are the key effects of massage:

Massage Reduces Muscle Tension. 
Massage affects the muscles throughout the body. Massage affects the muscles and other soft tissues throughout the body. It loosens contracted, shortened, hardened muscles. Massage can stimulate weak, flaccid muscles. Chronic muscle tension reduces the circulation of the blood and movement of lymph in an area.

Massage Improves Blood Circulation. 
The oxygen capacity of the blood can increase 10-15% after massage. By indirectly or directly stimulating nerves that supply internal organs, blood vessels of these organs dilate and allow greater blood supply to them.

Massage Induces Better Lymph Movement. 
Lymph is a milky white fluid that drains impurities and waste away from the tissue cells. A component of these wastes is toxins which are the by-products of metabolism. So, it is a vital to our health. Muscular contraction has a pumping effect that moves lymph. Massage and exercise help to move lymph.

Massage Results In Increased Mobility and Range of Motion of Joints.
Massage provides a gentle stretching action to both the muscles and connective tissues that surround and support the muscles and many other parts of the body, which helps keep these tissues elastic.

Massage Stimulates or Soothes Nervous System. 
Massage balances the nervous system by soothing or stimulating it, depending on which effect is needed by the individual at the time of the massage.

Massage Enhances Skin Condition. 
Massage enhances the skin condition by improving the function of the sebaceous and sweat glands, which keep the skin lubricated, clean, and cool.

Massage Results in Better Digestion and Intestinal Function. 
Massage increases the body’s secretions and excretions. It increases the production of gastric juices, saliva, and urine. There is also an increased excretion of nitrogen, inorganic phosphorus, and salt. As a result, the metabolic rate increases.

Massage Relieves of Acute and Chronic pain. 
Massage can promote recovery from the fatigue and from minor aches and pains.