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Performance Massage - Robert King
Performance Massage
by Robert King
NEW, 160 pages
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About Performance Massage
Now effective high-energy massage techniques are easy for anyone to learn! In Performance Massage Robert K. King, former National President of the American Massage Therapy Association, explains massage therapy for athletes, dancers, and other physically active people. Coaches and fitness professionals will also find this book to be a valuable reference.
Even if the reader has never given or received a massage, this book makes it easy to do! The book is loaded with over 150 color photos that guide the reader step-by-step through all of the skills needed to do Performance Massage with a training partner.
Performance Massage is different from popular relaxation or medical massages in several ways. First, it features a unique combination of muscle stretching and high-impact massage techniques designed to enhance athletic and artistic performance, reduce and prevent injuries, and complement an active lifestyle.
Second, unlike the complicated sequences of traditional massage, Performance Massage teaches specific, easy-to-learn skills that encourage a personalized, "hands-on" approach. Both hands feel for problem areas in the recipient`s muscles and use massage to:
- stretch and unwind tight areas,
- spread muscle fibers and nourish muscle fibers,
- decongest and oxygenate muscles, and
- reduce tension and increase flexibility.
Finally, because therapeutic massage applies direct pressure--not surface strokes--to muscles, lubricants are not needed. Readers will also appreciate that clothing stays on and is considered an additional layer of skin to work through.
It`s easy for readers to insert these massage techniques into their exercise routines. The book also shows readers how to combine specific techniques to develop a Warm-Up Massage, Cool-Down Massage, and Maintenance Massage. The techniques require less than 30 minutes to perform and are ideally suited to the fast-paced schedules of athletes, dancers, and physically active people.
In addition to the basic skills and techniques for therapeutic massage, the book features detailed instructions for a whole body massage. It also includes reference information on equipment, touching skills, receiving a massage, and the benefits of ongoing Performance Massage.
Performance Massage can easily be incorporated into anyone`s fitness regimen. It`s a great way to enhance muscle fitness and improve performance!
About Robert King
As a former competitive weightlifter, boxer, and runner, Robert K. King has personally experienced the reality of coping with muscle strains and maintaining peak performance. For over 20 years he has worked as a professional massage therapist with many world class athletes, dancers, and entertainers such as Joan Benoit-Samuelson, Chuck Norris, and Mikhail Baryshnikov.
Mr. King is co-founder and director of the Chicago School of Massage Therapy, the largest state-approved vocational massage therapy school in the Midwest. Since 1977 he has held various offices in the American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA), including Illinois Chapter President, National Director of Education, and two terms as National President. He is also the co-founder and former National Examiner for the AMTA National Sports Massage Team.
As President of AMTA, King developed the AMTA Strategic Plan for Professional Development, resulting in increased public acceptance of massage therapy and a doubling in association membership.
As the former National Director of Education for AMTA, he spearheaded a national drive to help increase educational standards and upgrade school curriculums and continuing education programs.
Robert King is the author of several articles, essays and instructional manuals including Body Mobilization Techniques, a training manual for massage therapists. He also conducts workshops, lectures extensively at schools and hospitals, and appears frequently in national media. He has also completed two instructional videos which are used in massage therapy schools throughout the United States.
A resident of Chicago, Illinois, Mr. King is married to Kathie Taylor King, who is a frequent assistant in his national workshops.
Review of this book
"I think it's great that now there's a book that teaches people how to do the kind of massage that will help them take care of their muscles. I hope you'll take the time to learn the techniques in Performance Massage and use them as a regular part of your workout program or activity schedule. Your body will thank you!"
Bill Rodgers
4-time winner of the Boston Marathon and New York Marathon
"Performance Massage is an excellent primer on giving massage to weekend warriors, serious athletes and all fitness participants. . . . The "no oil" approach described in Performance Massage is practical and effective, and simplifies massage technique for easy learning."
Patricia J. Benjamin, PhD
Massage Therapy Educator, American Massage Therapy Association
About Massage
Massage is the manipulation of superficial and deeper layers of muscle and connective tissue to enhance function, aid in the healing process, and promote relaxation and well-being. The word comes from the French massage "friction of kneading", or from Arabic massa meaning "to touch, feel or handle" or from Latin massa meaning "mass, dough", cf. Greek verb μάσσω (massō) "to handle, touch, to work with the hands, to knead dough". In distinction the ancient Greek word for massage was anatripsis, and the Latin was frictio.
Massage involves acting on and manipulating the body with pressure – structured, unstructured, stationary, or moving – tension, motion, or vibration, done manually or with mechanical aids. Target tissues may include muscles, tendons, ligaments, fascia, skin, joints, or other connective tissue, as well as lymphatic vessels, or organs of the gastrointestinal system. Massage can be applied with the hands, fingers, elbows, knees, forearm, and feet. There are over eighty different recognized massage modalities. The most cited reasons for introducing massage as therapy have been client demand and perceived clinical effectiveness.
In professional settings massage involves the client being treated while lying on a massage table, sitting in a massage chair, or lying on a mat on the floor. The massage subject may be fully or partly unclothed. Parts of the body may be covered with towels or sheets. Those who practice massage as a career are referred to as massage therapists.
Peer-reviewed medical research has shown that the benefits of massage include pain relief, reduced trait anxiety and depression, and temporarily reduced blood pressure, heart rate, and state of anxiety. Theories behind what massage might do include blocking nociception (gate control theory), activating the parasympathetic nervous system, which may stimulate the release of endorphins and serotonin, preventing fibrosis or scar tissue, increasing the flow of lymph, and improving sleep, but such effects are yet to be supported by well-designed clinical studies.
Massage is hindered from reaching the gold standard of scientific research, which includes placebo-controlled and double blind clinical trials. Developing a "sham" manual therapy for massage would be difficult since even light touch massage could not be assumed to be completely devoid of effects on the subject. It would also be difficult to find a subject that would not notice that they were getting less of a massage, and it would be impossible to blind the therapist. Massage can employ randomized controlled trials, which are published in peer reviewed medical journals. This type of study could increase the credibility of the profession because it displays that purported therapeutic effects are reproducible.
Performance Massage
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