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What is Swedish Massage?
Swedish Massage is a relaxing, therapeutic massage technique used to generally relieve stress. It consists of five foundational techniques:
Effleurage: Slow, rhythmic, gliding strokes, usually in the direction of the venous blood flow (toward the heart), for example, from the knee to the outer hip.
Petrissage: Kneading pressing and rolling muscle tissues much in the same way you would roll dough. This also is done in the direction of the venous blood flow toward the heart.
Friction: The therapist contacts the skin above a tender muscle with finger tips or thumb and, without sliding on the skin, moves the skin over the muscle spreading the muscle fibers and restoring blood flow to the tight, restricted muscle tissue.
Percussion (Tapotement): Drumming hand movements with various hand surfaces (i.e. hands flat, cupped, turned at 90 degrees etc.) on broad areas of the body especially the back of the torso.
Vibration and Jostling: Vibration uses rapid movements by the therapist to transmit an oscillating action to the patients' muscles. This is most frequently used on the extremities of the body. Jostling requires rapid shaking of the muscles back and forth for a brief period of time to stimulate the mechanical receptors of the nervous system causing a relaxation response in the muscles.