History of Massage 
 
Massage as a treatment has been used throughout time and is said to date back to China from around 3000BC, although some prehistoric cave art in Europe and Africa would predate this. 
 
The earliest written reference to massage is in the "Nei Ching", the Yellow Emperor's Book of Medicine (written about 2700 BC in China), which describes many massage techniques and their use.  The Chinese called their form of massage „Amma‟ and it used particular points of the body and specific honed movements; it was recorded as been used for relaxation and the restoration of general health purposes. The Eastern system of massage emphasises the idea of balancing energy in the body.   
 
Acupressure massage was developed in China and was based on the acupuncture energy meridians and points. It is now often used in combination with other traditional systems such as "Anmo" (pressing and rubbing) and "Tuina" (pushing and pulling).  
 
In Japan the "Amma" massage of pressing, rubbing, wringing and stretches was traditionally practised by blind practitioners. Nowadays, the process of Shiatsu comes from the ancient form of massage. Shiatsu combines this with pressure techniques on acupuncture points.  
 
Thai massage also combines pressure, rubbing and stretches with techniques that work on the energy lines of the body. 
 
There are many references in the Old Testament of the Bible to the practice of people being "anointed with oil", particularly after a long journey.  
 
From about 500 BC, there are references to massage in medical texts from Egypt, Persia and Japan. The Japanese were practising the „Amma‟ process but used pressure points known as „Tsubo‟.  
 
Massage has always been used in India as an essential part of their traditional Ayurveda medicine and Indian texts on Ayurvedic Medicine from about 1800 BC give detailed accounts of massage.  Ayurveda derives from Sanskrit and translates as „ayur‟ meaning life and „veda‟ meaning knowledge. 
 
In addition to its use by skilled professionals massage has been used within families throughout Asia and Africa, particularly by mothers massaging babies, and the head massage is an automatic part of a visit to the barber or hairdresser throughout much of North Africa and Asia.

Massage also developed independently in other parts of the world. Many of the early European visitors to Pacific Islands described the use of massage (such as  the Hawaiian "Lomilomi") and Captain James Cook on his third Pacific voyage in the late eighteenth century, had  a series of massage treatments ("romee") in Tahiti to  treat and relieve sciatic pain. 
 
It is interesting to note that all of these countries are well known for their holistic (whole body, spirit and mind) approach to medicine which tends to be in direct contrast to the Western approach to medicine and treatment. 
 
Massage was used by the Greeks as a part of their daily fitness routine. In the fifth century BC Hippocrates, the "father of medicine" preached the benefits of massage saying "the physician must be experienced in many things, but assuredly in rubbing". By then the „Gymnasia‟ were established in many Greek cities, and the anointing of athletes with oils and powders was a common practice in the popular Games.  
 
In earlier times, Homer described in "The Odyssey" (about 1000 BC) how the war weary heroes were rested and replenished by the use of massage.  
 
So the use of massage, as a method of relieving stiffness, soreness and tightness in muscles, and as a treatment for particular problems was well established in classical Greece, and was developed further in Roman times.  
 
In Rome, massage was used regularly at the Roman baths as part of social bonding and focused on treating disease, reducing pain and stiffness from muscles and joints and improving circulation and general health.  
 
The Roman physician Celsus (25 BC – 50 AD) wrote that "chronic pains in the head are relieved by rubbing the head itself" and that "a paralysed limb is strengthened by rubbing".  Julius Caesar the Roman emperor had regular daily massage and swore by it.  It was recorded that Caesar was "pinched" daily to treat and relieve neuralgia. Galen, a Roman physician (AD 131-20l), who worked for Caesar wrote many medical texts stressing the use of massage for health purposes  and  promoted its use in the preparation of gladiators for combat and in the treatment of injuries.   Following the end of the Roman Empire in the fifth century, the Arabs sustained and continued to develop the knowledge and teachings of the classical world.  
 
Avicenna, a tenth century philosopher and physician, who died in 1037 in Hamedan, wrote that the object of massage was "to disperse the effete matters found in the muscles and not expelled by exercise".  
 

Arabs also carried on the tradition of massage being offered at the Public Baths a practice that continues to the present day in the "Hammams", the traditional Baths which operate in North Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean (e.g. Turkish Baths) and across into Pakistan and neighbouring parts of Asia 
 
Classical medical knowledge re-entered Europe from the Arab world during the Renaissance (approximately 1450 - 1600), firstly in the new business centres in Italy where medical schools were established, and then spreading to other European cities that had increased prosperity.  
 
One of the first books from the Gutenberg press was "De Medicina", written by the Roman, Celsus (25 BC - 50 AD), which emphasised the importance of rubbing, exercise and anointing the human body.  
 
During the sixteenth century the French doctor Ambroise Pare (1517-1590), one of the founders of modern surgery, used massage - particularly friction massage, in the treatment of stiff and injured joints and from his success his ideas was passed on to other French and German physicians.  
 
Unfortunately massage began to have a less positive relationship with mainstream medicine, as the latter developed further away from being a primarily hands-on skill. 
 
The concept of modern massage originates on the techniques and principles developed by Per Henrik Ling (1776-1839) who originated from Sweden and was a fencing master and Physiologist. After studying in China he began developing a system of techniques and movements which he used to improve general health and physical condition.  "Swedish Massage", which forms the basis for European styles of massage, is so called because it was first developed (from existing techniques) as one component of a system of gymnastics. 
 
From the early nineteenth century, when he began teaching in Stockholm, his massage system began to be practised on its own and spread throughout Europe. Just prior to Ling‟s death one of his pupils established a clinic in St Petersburg and these techniques formed the basis of Russian Medical Massage, which is widespread in the former Communist countries of Eastern Europe.  
 
In the 1840's, Dr Mathias Roth, another student of Ling, introduced it to Britain and wrote the first book in English on Swedish Movements and Massage in 1850.  
 
Two of his students, the American brothers Charles Taylor and George R Taylor MD, established it in the US in 1856. 

Over the next thirty years they published extensively both Ling's system and their own research with it. By the 1880's there was a growing popularity for massage throughout Europe and North America and considerable literature on the subject. 
 
Queen Victoria had successful treatments for rheumatic pains which gave considerable publicity and prestige to the Swedish Massage Cure.  
 
At the end of the nineteenth century the concept of massage was experiencing problems retaining respectability and acceptance as it was perceived that it was associated with the Sex Industry.   Due to this eight women who had been professionally trained in the massage process formed The Society of Trained Masseuses in 1884.  This later was renamed The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy and since then massage has continued to be accepted and used for medicinal purposes. 
 
Massage was used throughout both World Wars to rehabilitate wounded soldiers and especially for the treatment of nerve damage.  
 
It was around this time that, due to a lack of trained Masseuses, mechanical devices for massage equipment were being produced and used to the point that “hands on” physical human massage was becoming reduced in both training and practice. 
 
However, the use of massage to help with Sports injuries developed into a well established and highly specialised field, covering pre and post event massages and training to deal with sports injuries.  
 
Massage continued to grow, expand and change in areas in which it was taught and applied very much as a routine – the gym/sauna "rubdown" and in the growing field of beauty therapy (as well as in "massage parlours", an unfortunate aspect of the lack of recognised national standards and registration of massage practitioners). 
 
In recent years a variety of  factors have contributed to a growing public interest in massage – the fashionable  fitness/ work life balance, the ever  growing awareness of stress as a health/illness factor, the  need to receive personal treatment where appropriate, an interest in health maintenance that has seen such a growth in "complementary therapies", the reintroduction of traditional Western and Eastern approaches, and the influence of physically based personal development disciplines (ranging from the purely physical to the spiritual – such as Yoga, Tai Chi and Eastern Martial Arts).