Advantages of Hot Stone Massage

Massage is the pressure applied on your body that relieves pain, relaxes your mind and body, and keeps you away from tension and stress. There are numerous ways of doing massage. Hot stone massage is one of the popular techniques of massage therapy. It is a technique of massage that relaxes the muscles and recovers the damaged soft tissues throughout your body. Hot stone massage provides deeper muscle relaxation, ease muscles stiffness and increases metabolism. In this therapy, smooth and flat and heated stones are used and places on some specific parts of your body like along your spine, on your stomach, chest, face, palms, feet, and toes etc. The stones used in this therapy are made of basalt; it is a type of volcanic rock. This rock is used because of its heat-retaining property. It is recommended that these stones should be heated between 130-145 degrees.

Medical Advantages of Hot Stone Massage

Relieve Muscle Tension and Pain: Heat is used to ease muscle tension and Chronic Pain. It helps to increase blood flow. Heat reduces muscle spasm and increases flexibility. The heat and weight of the stones warm and relax the muscles. The heat of stones help in damaged tissue and stiff muscle recovery. It is important to let your therapist know if you are feeling too hot from the stone to avoid any discomfort.

Improved Circulation: In hot stone massage, a massage therapist places the heated stones on trigger points of your body before starting the actual massage. Heat from the stones goes deeper down to your body and opens your blood vessels that result in improved blood circulation. Good circulation delivers more oxygen to the muscles that eventually helps to reduce aches and also assist in improving muscle health.

Promote Better Sleep: In a research, it is found that massage can be an alternate for sleeping pills for people suffering from insomnia. Back massage promotes relaxation and better sleep. It is shown in a study that infants also sleep faster when they get 10-15 minutes massage by their parents. As it is recommended that we should take at least 7-8 hours of good sleep at night to be active in the morning. Hot stone massage relaxes your muscles and provides you better sleep.

Reduce Stress and Anxiety: A massage therapy is very effective is stress relief. A 10-15 minute massage can relieve your stress and take you away from anxiety and also improve cardiovascular responses. People undergoing abdominal disease feel less pain and anxiety after getting a post-operative massage.

Increase Joint Flexibility: Muscle tension or stiffness can be painful in moving joints. A hot stone massage helps to loosen the muscle which makes it easier to move. People suffering from joint pain or certain joint related disorders may benefit from hot stone massage.

Reduce Mental Stress: Massage therapies not only work upon physical fitness but it also results in mental benefits. It combats with symptoms like anxiety, depression etc and hence gives you peace of mind. It helps to ease your mental stress and tension so that you can focus on your work and family better.