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Origins and Developments of Swedish Massage
Today, Swedish massage is a typical massage technique that is widely used in spas, physical therapy clinics, and well-being centers around the world. As the name 'Swedish' indicates, this technique originated in Sweden and focuses on relieving muscle fatigue, promoting blood circulation, and assisting in overall relaxation and recovery. However, Swedish massage has more than just developed as a technology for relaxation. Behind it lies a deep history of centuries-old European physical education, medicine, and philosophy.
The person who laid the foundation for Swedish massage was Peir Henrik Ling, a Swedish physiologist and physical education educator who was active in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He was originally a fencer, but suffered from severe rheumatoid pain in his youth, leading him to study exercise and massage for health recovery. In the process, he devised a series of gymnastics systems that combined body movement and massage techniques, which would later be called 'Swedish gymnastics'.
Ling did not just see massage as a skill of handwriting (手技), but also as a scientific treatment practice based on anatomy and physiology. He systematically studied the effects of movement, friction, and compression on each part of the body on muscles, blood circulation, and the nervous system, and established the results as an educational system. In 1813, he established the Royal Central Institute of Gymnastics in Stockholm, where he systematically taught his theories and skills. Here, his massage techniques were refined by subsequent generations and became accepted as part of medical treatment and rehabilitation.
However, the name 'Swedish massage' as we know it today has never been clearly used by Ring's own hand. Rather, this term became natural in later years as it spread throughout the United States and Europe. Specifically, at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries, European and North American massage experts and doctors developed various styles of therapeutic massage based on Ring's philosophy and technique. Some of them simplified and integrated Ring's technique and reorganized it into a modern Swedish massage.
Swedish massage basically consists of five key techniques. They include Efficiency, which gently sweeps the skin, Petrissage, which squeezes muscles, Friction, which relaxes by giving friction, Tapotment, and Vibration, which stimulates by giving vibration, etc. These techniques do not just give a pleasant feeling, but also contribute to the recovery of fatigue and body balance by loosening muscle clumping and improving blood flow.
Since the mid-20th century, Swedish massage has begun to be widely adopted in the fields of physical therapy and sports medicine. In particular, it is highly utilized in that it is effective in muscle recovery, injury prevention, and rehabilitation treatment for athletes. In the United States and Europe, treatment massage based on Swedish massage has taken on a certain role within the medical system, and has become the most basic curriculum in massage therapist qualification education.
In Asia, including Korea, Swedish massage has only recently become known in earnest. In particular, as the spa industry and well-being trend spread, Swedish massage, which combines deep pressure and anatomical approaches, is being re-examined as a professional value beyond just a cosmetic massage. In addition, as it develops into customized therapy, it is being used for various purposes such as relaxation, pain relief, and body shape correction.
In conclusion, Swedish massage is not a simple technique, but rather an integrated healing method that originated from European medical and physical education traditions. It has been established in its current form through hundreds of years of research and practice, and has established itself as an effective way to relieve fatigue and tension of modern people. If you understand its origin and philosophy, you can feel a deep value and tradition beyond just a massage.
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