What Is a Hot Stone Massage?

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Sundae with Natural Sundae. Have you ever wondered what a hot stone massage is? Well, I'm here to help you. Now a hot stone massage is a type of massage therapy in which hot stones are use to heat the tissue and warm it up for the therapist so they can really get in there and effect some change and heal that tissue. Now the components of a hot stone massage are of course, most importantly the hot stones and these are specifically basalt stones which are lava stones. And they are use specifically for their ability to withhold heat or cold at different times, but they withhold heat very well and they transfer it to a person's tissue. Sometimes therapists lay these right on the client's skin. I don't really recommend that, I would recommend using a towel in between that's personally what I do. But anyways, so they are the stones and generally, therapists have different routines. No therapist routine is the same and generally there are between forty and fifty basalt stones use. And of course there are many different sizes, there's little ones, medium ones and big ones and these are of course use in parts of the body they're appropriate for size. Now another very important component of a hot stone massage is the warmer and this is what actually going to heat your stones. You're going to fill it up with water, turn it on to about 250 to 300 degrees for about thirty minutes and this will warm them up nice. This is a little contraption that you can use to take the stones out of the warmer because they're going to be probably a little too hot at first. So this will really save the therapist hands. Another little invention of my own is my little basket which I love. This basket has save my hands many, many times when my table is too far away for my warmer to carry the stones comfortably. So I just put my little towels in here. I put my stones in here, I cover them up, make sure the stones stay nice and hot; that way I can walk around the table and do whatever I need and I'm not burning myself. So this is actually save me personally many times. And then another wonderful component of a hot stone massage is essential oils. And these little guys are wonderfully, they're very wonderful. They are aromatic molecules that are found in herbs, in plants and flowers and what you do is you drop a couple of drops into the hot water and it will evaporate all the fragrant molecules into the air and help your client relax and smell really, really good. So again, a hot stone massage is a specific type of massage used with hot lava stones to warm up the tissue and allow the therapist to get in and effect some change. It feels really, really good and if you've never had one, you've got to go out and get one. I'm Sundae with Natural Sundae. Take care."