History of Massage in Western Culture

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Native Americans also used heat and massage with herbs to treat many problems. The Cherokee and Navaho were among many tribes who rubbed their warriors before they went to war and when they returned. Massage was used to ease the labor pains of women and colic in infants.

Western Massage

The ancient Greeks valued the benefits of massage very highly, using it in most avenues of daily life. Techniques were developed to help athletes to keep their bodies in the best condition for competitions. They also used massage for relaxation. Physicians of the time such as Hippocrates (460 to 377 BC) ‘the father of medicine’, used herbs with oils and massage techniques to treat many medical conditions. He stated that "anyone wishing to study medicine must master the art of massage." Greek women also recognized the value of massage with aromatic oils, using them as a beauty treatment for the skin and face. Homer in his work Odyssey describes massage as "welcome relief to exhausted war heroes."

The Romans learnt many of their medical techniques from the Greeks. Galen, a notable physician to several Emperors in the first century AD, used massage to treat many types of disease and physical injuries. He cited Hippocrates saying rubbing, if strenuous, hardens the body, if gentle relaxes... rubbing should be employed, when either a feeble body has to be toned up, or has to be softened, or harmful excess fluid is to be dispersed, or a thin and infirm body has to be nourished."

Julius Caesar, who suffered from neuralgia, had his body ‘pinched’ every day to help greater blood flow and reduce fatty tissue below the skin. The wealthy would be massaged in their own home, by their personal physician, but many others received treatment at public baths, where both trainers and doctors plied their trade. Public baths were often funded by benefactors, so the entrance fee was nominal, hence baths were bustling places.

With the end of the fourteenth century came the end of the Dark Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance. The Renaissance brought along with it many great discoveries in the arts and sciences.

Massage became unpopular during this period as Europe was overcome by a conservative and repressive religious dogma. Touching was not considered as part of the healing method as it involved corporal pleasures and these were considered sinful.

Swedish Massage

There were very few advances in massage until 1813, when Pehr Henrik Ling established the Royal Central Institute of Gymnastics in Sweden. In the nineteenth century the most common treatments for illness were blood letting and the use of purgatives. Physicians put their faith in science, and new drugs such as Calomel, mercury and arsenic based tonics, were in common usage. Ling formalized a series of gymnastic movements and massage techniques which have become known as Swedish massage. These techniques included ‘effleurage’ or stroking, ‘petrisage’ or pressing and squeezing and ‘tapotement’ or striking. Ling is sometimes credited with being the father of modern massage.

In the mid 1800's massage tools emerged as a focal point of massage. More on history of massage tools

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