How to Give a Full Body Massage

Full body massages have the potential to completely rid a body of toxins and stresses of everyday life. Truly, laying down for a massage after a long week of work or a particularly stressful period of time is the ultimate release. How nice would it be if you and your partner knew how to give each other full body massages? Not only will it possibly improve your relationship with one another, but you wouldn't have to pay someone a bunch of money to help you relax. Here's how to start giving better massages.

Start with the neck and shoulders, focusing on the upper neck and cranium. Neck muscles run all the way up the back of your head, and those are often the most tense after a long, stressful week. Knead those muscles gently at first, increasing in pressure as you begin to feel the muscles relax. Make straight lines up the sides of the neck, up to the head, always away from the heart. Squeeze the shoulder muscles to begin to loosen those muscles. Continue kneading and paying special attention to areas where knots are felt. Knots will feel like little, round balls stuck inside the muscles. When you hit a knot, the person you are massaging will often cringe, but use your thumbs to push the knot down and knead it out of the muscle.

After you have spent significant time on the shoulders and neck, move to the arms, squeeze and knead all the way down the arms to the fingertips. Start at the top of the arm and work your way down to the fingertips several times.

Next move to the great expanse of the back. Start along the backbone, kneading gently with one hand on each side. Look for knots or tight spots that you can work through. When massaging the back, it feels best when your hands make symmetrical motions on either side. It increases relaxation and enhances feeling. After you have worked your way up and down the backbone several times, start making butterflies with your hands using the backbone as the body. Make circles and begin to cover the rest of the back muscles, focusing on tight spots. A lot of tension usually resides in the lower back and upper buttocks so focus on that area the most. You will begin to feel the entire back start to relax completely. When this happens move down to the legs.

Treat the legs much like the arms, working your way from the top to the tips of the toes, treating each one to their own massage. Like the arms, start at the top and knead your way down several times to really work through all of the muscles.

After the massage is completed, have the person drink lots of water or tea with lemon squeezed into it. After a full body massage, toxins from the muscles are looking to vacate the body. If the body is dehydrated the toxins will be reabsorbed into the muscles and the person will be left in worse pain and muscle tightness that before, which makes this last step the most important.

For more information on full body massages, visit http://www.fullbodymassager.com/

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