Massage Canberra | Physiological Effects | Massage Therapy Canberra | Psychological Effects

Physiological & Psychological Effects of Massage

There are two major aspects to massage, physiological and psychological. Firstly and most obviously massage acts in a physical way. It gives a deep kneading/touching/grounding that releases hard knots of tension, stimulates the circulation of the blood and lymph systems, soothes the nervous system and helps to integrate and balance the skeleton.

Physiological Effects of Massage

Blood

The most obvious thing that massage does on a physical level is to stimulate the circulation of the blood. Think what the blood is doing: it is carrying oxygen and all of the nutrients that we have assimilated from our food, (carbohydrates, proteins and fats). At the same time, the blood is carrying away certain metabolic wastes. These are the essential processes of life: breathing, feeding and eliminating, taking place on a cellular level.

So when we stimulate the circulation we are literally stimulating the life energies. Every cell in our body needs to be fed and serviced. This is particularly so for cells that are damaged. Everybody learns from early on that when something huts, you rub it. Rubbing increases the circulation which provides additional amounts of oxygen, proteins for cell re-building and numerous other substances including vitamins and minerals for cellular metabolism. The result is rapid repair and diminishing of pain.

Lymph

The lymphatic system is a one-way transport system with vessels like veins that drain from the cells back to the bloodstream. The lymph has no pump but depends for its circulation on skeletal muscle contractions and respiratory movements. The primary function of the lymphatic system is to drain from the tissue spaces protein-containing fluid that escapes from the blood capillaries. In addition the lymph plays an essential role in combating infection and in draining lactic acid, cell debris and intestinal toxins from the tissues.

Nervous System

The nervous system is the communication system. It connects every part of the body via the brain. As we have already seen every square inch of skin contains seventy- two feet of nerves and hundreds of sense receptors. The various receptors are designed to detect light touch, deep touch, pressure, cold, heat and pain. There are also specialised receptors known as proprioceptors which allow us to sense position and movement. These give us information about muscle tension, the position and tension of joints and equilibrium.

The nervous system is a complex subject. From the point of view of massage it is sufficient to say that the loosening of muscular tension alone is enough to ease the workload of the nerves. People with chronic muscular tension have constantly overstimulated nerves. This overactivity is a waste of human energy. If you can ease the nervous overactivity you will automatically make more energy available to the body.