What Is a Californian Massage?

Series Summary

Massage therapy is a practice with multiple benefits. Whether it's a quick rubdown or a full-body treatment, the human touch has practical applications for promoting both physical and emotional well-being. Massage is performed with the use of motion, pressure, tension and vibration on certain areas of the body, such as painful or stressed muscles and joints. This allows a release of tension and a return to a homeostatic condition. Beyond general stress relief, massage encourages physical and emotional healing by improving circulation. In this free video series on massage, a licensed massage therapist discusses several unique types of massage techniques. Find out about Reiki massage, Thai massage, Lomi Lomi massage and Tui Na massage, all utilizing different rhythms, techniques and methods to nourish the body, mind and soul. Get information about the history of these massage techniques as they have developed over the centuries. Each type of massage improves overall health in their own unique way.

Video Transcript

"Hi I'm Sundae with Natural Sundae, and if you're wondering what a Californian massage is, I'm going to tell you now. Now basically, a Californian massage, is akin to a relaxation massage, and relaxation massage is a massage that focus is to relax you. It is meant to focus on the superficial tissues in the body, increase circulation in those tissues. It's not really meant to address any deep seeded issues, about deeper muscles that cause other pain, it's just to relax you. Open up the body, increase blood flow, get that blood circulation going, and clean out those tissues, and keep you nice and healthy, and happy. Now the five strokes that are commonly used in Swedish massage, relaxation massage, or Californian massage are Effleurage, Petrosage, Friction, Vibration, and Tapotement. Now Effleurage is a nice relaxing, gliding stroke. It's usually done up the length of the back, to relax, and glide right over that tissue. Petrosage is French for kneeding, which means lifting up that tissue, in between the two hands, and being able to penetrate that muscle tissue, and separate it, and increase blood flow right through those tissues. Now Friction is circular compression. Friction is compressing in a circular motion to open up that area, increase circulation, and decrease muscle fatigue. The forth technique is called Vibration which means waking up that muscle, and nerve tissue underneath, you're vibrating your hand. Just like that, right on the muscle tissue, to wake it up. You're going to increase the redness, which means the circulation in the blood is coming right to the surface. So Vibration is a wonderful technique for that. And then also Tapotement, which is the last technique, and this is used with alternate hands, just like this and you're going to relax your wrists so that your hands can just be in a regular motion. You can either do this like this way, or you can use your fists, or you can actually put your hands in a cupping motion and use them like this. And this is also a great way to release muscle stress, relax the muscles, increase circulation, and it feels really, really good. So Californian massage, or relaxation massage, is a massage focused specifically to relax the client, and to bring a greater sense of well being and circulation as well. I'm Sundae with Natural Sundae."