Turkish Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 2007 , Vol 53 , Num 2

Classic Massage

Ercan MADENCİ 1
1 Gaziantep Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi, Fizik Tedavi ve Rehabilitasyon Anabilim Dalı, Gaziantep, Türkiye

Classical massage has a history of 5000 years. It has been known since ancient civilizations. In the past Indians, Greeks, Chinese and Egyptians have used massage for different purposes and in different forms. Today, massage is widely used throughout the world. The origin of the word massage comes from the words “mass” meaning touch in Arabic and “massein” meaning knead in Greek. There are many definitions of massage. For instance, forming phsiologic and psychologic effects on the organism by systemic manipulations which stimulates soft tissues might be used as one of these definitions. Massage has a common purpose which helps the subject to feel both phsiologic and psychologic relief. Massage can be applied both by hand and using some instruments however; manual massage constitutes the main basic form. Classical massage can be divided into: a) stroke, b) knead, c) friction, d) percussion, e) vibration. 

Keywords : Classical massage, massage