THE CONSTRUCTION AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE COMBINED MASSAGE EXERCISES
The chief characteristics of the exercises presented in this book is that scientific or medical massage movements (not mere rubbing) have been combined with the essentials of preliminary gymnastic exercises, such as for instance, bending, stretching and circulating movements of the arms, the bending of the body (trunk) backward, forward and to the side, turning and rolling it to the right or left, and bending and stretching the legs.
By this combined application of the massage movements with the movements of the body, there is also obtained the benefit of the essential characteristics of the Indian Yogis system or concentration exercises, so-called after the old Hindus,—the Yogi. For example, one of their exercises consisted of placing the backs of the hands on the back, and by concentrating the mind on the muscles of the arms a stationary pressure was exerted on that part of the body. Another consisted of clutching the hands firmly (with arms at sides) and rising up on toes, at the same time concentrating the mind on the muscles of the arms and legs. The Yogis also practiced other exercises, in which the hands exerted a stationary pressure on other parts of the body and against a wall.
The few more or less fantastic systems of exercise presented during the last fifty years, which consist mainly in producing an imaginary resistance to the muscles by will power only, originate from the Indian Yogis.
In the exercises presented in this book a natural, better and more agreeable resistance to the muscles of the legs, arms and trunk is secured by stroking and pressing with the hands on the body and limbs. Here the pressing is not stationary, as in the Indian and similar exercises, but it is done while the hands are stroking. This stroking and pressing is done in such a manner that it is identical with scientific massage movements, some of which have been used by specialists prominent in Europe and America. To the exercises are also added those which in the author’s experience at hospitals in New York, have been found to be productive of the best results. The only difference is that they are here joined to the movements of the body and are performed by the individual.
These massage movements have a far greater beneficial effect—therapeutically as well as physiologically—than the body movements themselves, to which they are combined. A brief explanation of their effects may here be interpolated.
1. They bring about increasing activity in the glands and vessels of the skin and muscles. Waste and poisonous substances are carried away by the lymph and blood supply and disposed of through the skin, lungs and kidneys more readily than otherwise.
2. Flabby and atrophied muscles are nourished and restored, while hard and contracted muscles are made more soft and supple; and fatigue matter removed from them.
3. They stimulate and nourish the nerves and through them the tissues and organs of the body.