Techniques of Massage

There are five massage strokes performed by the physical therapist: effleurage, friction,
petrissage, tapotement and vibrations.
Effleurage is a light, rhythmical stroke performed on the skin in the venous circulation
direction. It is directed to the skin, peripheral nerves and connective tissue and has as main
effects the enhancement of the capillary and lymphatic circulation. Due to the direct mechanical
stimulation, but especially on a reflex basis, they produce a local hyperemia because of the motor
vascular, humoral and nervous modifications. It is performed with the palm, the fist, or the dorsal
face of the fingers. There are also other variants of effleurage, depending on the area where they
are applied. These ones are the “comb effleurage”, “rain drop” or in “bender”.
Friction is a stroke that consists in pushing and moving the soft tissues between the limits
of their elasticity. As effects there are a skin hyperemia and local analgesic effect, decreasing
drastically the sensitivity of the nervous terminations. On a reflex way, the friction has long time
effects, on the trophicity and blood circulation, contributing to the nervous and muscular
relaxation or to the stimulation of the neurovegetative system (according to the needs and the
execution technique). It can be performed with the palm or the fingers, with the dorsal face of the
bent fingers, with the top of the fingers or the fist.
Petrissage is used especially for the muscle tissue and it consists in the grasping, elevating,
squeezing and pushing the tissue on the hard bone surface. Its action is more penetrating that the
one of the other strokes, that is why it is very much used in sport massage in all training periods,
competition, or medical rehabilitation), or for treating the atrophy or muscular insufficiency of
different etiologies (accidents, immobilizations etc).
Tapotement represents the rhythmical and light pounding of the soft tissues and it is a part
of the main massage strokes. It stimulates the superficial or deep layers according to the
pounding intensity, and it is addressed mainly to the nervous terminations and subcutaneous
connective layer, where it produces vasodilatations and local hyperemia.
Vibrations are main massage strokes with a very small number of contraindications
(bleedings or skin diseases) and they consist of oscillatory rhythmical movements on the soft
tissues. The stroke can be performed manually or mechanically. The latter one is performed with
different kinds of devices, quicker, perfectly rhythmical and they can be applied for a long time.
They have always relaxing effects, when performed deeply they produce circulation activation,
and an enhancement of the effort.