Thai Massage Body Massage

IThai Massage, which is available at the Atehenaeum Spa in Malta, is a body massage which was developed by Buddhist monks in Thailand as a healing modality 2,500 years ago. Thai body massage uses passive stretching and gentle pressure along the body's energy lines to increase flexibility, relieve muscle and joint tension and balance the body's energy systems. Thai massage is both deeply relaxing and energizing.

The massage recipient changes into loose, comfortable clothes and lies on a mat or firm mattress on the floor. It can be done solo or in a group of a dozen or so patients in the same large room. The receiver is put into many yoga-like positions during the course of the massage.

The body massage practitioner leans on the recipient's body using hands and usually straight forearms locked at the elbow to apply firm rhythmic pressure. The massage generally follows the Sen lines on the body — somewhat analogous to meridians or Channel (Chinese medicine) and Indian nadis. Legs and feet of the giver can be used to fixate the body or limbs of the recipient. In other positions, hands fixate the body, while the feet do the massaging action. A full Thai body massage session typically lasts two hours or more, and includes rhythmic pressing and stretching of the entire body; this may include pulling fingers, toes, ears, cracking the knuckles, walking on the recipient's back, and arching the recipient's into bhujangasana or (cobra position). There is a standard procedure and rhythm to this massage.

The best thing about Thai body massage at the Athenaeum Spa in Malta is that, like yoga you get flexibility, inner organ massage, oxygenation of the blood and quieting of the mind. Through deep muscle stretching, joint release and emphasis on the breath, Thai massage offers many of the same benefits as yoga. It's amazing how much more you are able to move when another person is providing assistance and encouraging us to relax. It is an interactive form of bodywork, quite unlike any other Western or Eastern forms. While it does include work by the practitioner kneading muscles, what makes it particularly helpful is its unique stretching. You remain passive while the practitioner does the movements to you.

The founder of Thai body massage and medicine is said to have been Shivago Komarpaj (Jīvaka Komarabhācca), who is said in the Pāli Buddhist Canon to have been the Buddha's physician over 2500 years ago. In fact, the history of Thai massage is more complex than this legend of a single founder would suggest. Thai massage, like Traditional Thai Medicine more generally, is a combination of influences from Indian, Chinese, Southeast Asian cultural spheres and traditions of medicine.[1] The art as it is practiced today is likely to be the product of a 19th century synthesis of various healing traditions from all over the kingdom. Even today, there is considerable variation from region to region across Thailand, and no single routine or theoretical framework that is universally accepted among healers.

Thai body massage at the Athenaeum Spa in Malta can be booked by calling on 2544 3001/2.