Practical Massage in Twenty Lessons

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Now repeat the same manipulations from the elbow to the shoulders, and when the whole arm has been worked over in this manner make firm strokes from the fingers to the shoulders, clasping the limb around with both your hands, from five to ten times. x?-x Fig. 5.?Circular Friction. The Effects Of These...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Now repeat the same manipulations from the elbow to the shoulders, and when the whole arm has been worked over in this manner make firm strokes from the fingers to the shoulders, clasping the limb around with both your hands, from five to ten times. x?-x Fig. 5.?Circular Friction. The Effects Of These Manipulations are as follows: ? Any pressure on the muscles must necessarily exert pressure upon the underlying veins and drive their contents away, and on account of the valves which open toward the heart only, it is clear that the contents of these vessels must be driven toward the center of the heart. Therefore, it would make no difference if a pressure was begun at the shoulder and gradually worked down the arm?the circulation of the bloodwould be accelerated either way; out a continual stroking against the veins would interfere very much with the venous circulation, and even produce ruptures of the vessels. Centripetal stroking quickens the circulation in the blood and lymph vessels and even sucks the blood from the vessels below, so that the arterial stream is quickened through the faster outflow from the veins and the diminution of the venous blood-pressure. The strok- ings going in opposite direction of the arteries do not interfere with the arterial stream, because the position of the arteries is deeper and more protected, and their walls are much more resistant. Centripetal stroking brings about the resorption and disappearance of all sorts of effusions, prevents stasis as well as adhesions of the white corpuscles to the walls of the vessels, and their subsequent migration, and reduces inflammatory tension and the pain due to pressure. Strokings also heighten the nutrition of the tissues, and are a valuable procedure in many cases of traumatic injury, as well ..