The Western school of massage therapy is constituted of three equally important branches: preventive massage therapy or Therapeutic Massage (TM), Medical Massage (MM) therapy, and Sports Massage (SM). We will concentrate on the first two. The preventive role of massage therapy is a critical component in the maintenance of our health. The major medical benefit of regular stress-reducing massage sessions is a balance between the activity of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems which control the basic functions of our body.
As far as we know, massage can be used as a preventive therapy, or for medical purposes, as a powerful method of treatment for numerous disorders. According to the Western school of massage therapy, there are three equally important branches: preventive massage therapy or Therapeutic Massage, Medical Massage, and Sports Massage. Let’s concentrate on the first two. Therapeutic massage plays an important role in the preventive therapy as well as can be used as a part of medical massage treatment. Therapeutic massage has numerous positive effects on the various functions of human body. It reduces muscular tension, improves peripheral blood circulation and lymph drainage, unloads the cardiac system, normalizes pulmonary function, supports the digestive system, etc. It also stimulates or sedates the central nervous system and therefore effects the patient’s mental and emotional status.
Medical massage is not method of preventive therapy. It is a highly effective method of treatment and an important part of modern medicine. Methods of medical massage are special procedures which were designed by scientists in different countries for the treatment of various pathologies of the human body.
Thus, Medical Massage is in fact not a single method or technique, but rather a concept, and it is based on a repertory of 7 basic massage techniques. Each method of medical massage has its own goals, techniques and clinical application. The practitioner usually knows how, when, and in what combination these techniques are to be applied during any given medical massage session addressing a particular problem.
Since its beginnings, the concept of MM has been based on two major principles:
1. The practitioner must be aware of the source of the innervation of the soft tissue he or she is working with
2. All methods and techniques applied within the affected area must address the soft tissue layer by layer.
When a scientifically designed protocol is used, the practitioner should know precisely where he or she is, what he or she is targeting at any given moment, what the subsequent step will be, and what is the expected outcome of the particular session as well as the treatment in general.
In a sense, Medical massage is like an overarching concept encompassing only scientifically designed and clinically tested methods and techniques. Basing itself on scientific publications, the modern concept of Medical massage recognizes and makes use of the following methods of treatment:
1. SEGMENT-REFLEX MASSAGE (SRM)
2. CONNECTIVE TISSUE MASSAGE (CTM)
3. PERIOSTAL MASSAGE (PM)
4. NEUROMUSCULAR THERAPY (NMT)
5. MYOFASCIAL RELEASE (MR)
5. MYOFASCIAL RELEASE (MR)
6. POSTISOMETRIC MUSCULAR RELAXATION (PIR)
7. ROLFING (RF)
8. CYRIAX’S PROCEDURE (CP)
9. STRETCHING MASSAGE (SM)
9. STRETCHING MASSAGE (SM)
10. VIBRATION MASSAGE (VM)
11. LYMPH-DRAINAGE MASSAGE (LDM)
12. VISCERAL MASSAGE (VMS)
Thus, we have at our disposal 12 scientifically tested methods of MM According to the concept of MM, the protocol of treatment should consist in methods and techniques specifically conceived to address specific pathological abnormalities in the soft tissue, rather than to be one method or technique, or a set combination of methods and techniques, which the practitioner applies indiscriminately over and over again. . A surgeon does not conduct surgery by scalpel only; rather, he or she makes use of a whole set of surgical instruments. Similarly, medical massage methods and techniques are instruments, or tools, of the medical massage practitioner. The more tools we have at our disposal, the more effective our medical massage protocols should be. Medical massage has its origins within traditional medicine, and sooner or later will be recognized as a legitimate and effective mode of treatment.
REFERENCE
Cyrax, J. Theory and Practice of Massage. Textbook of Orthopaedic Medicine, Vol. 2. 11th Edition, Bailliere & Tindall, Toronto, 1985
Дубровский, В. И. Лечебный массаж. Москва, Медицина, 1995.
Flerova, S.A. V.A. Manakov’s System of Medical Massage. Medgiz, Moscow, 1956
Goldblat, Y. V. "Encyclopedia of reflex massage in clinical practice: reflex-segmental, acupressure, linear, zonal” Science and Technology, St. Petersburg, 2007
Turchaninov, R. Therapeutic Massage –Scientific Approach. Aesculapius Books, Phoenix, 2000
Turchaninov, R. Medical Massage. Aesculapius Books, Phoenix, 2006