Energizing Body Massage

These days life is such a rat race that many of us feel like little rodents spinning round on their wheels always racing to the next hurdle, but never quite getting there. If you put in an eight hour day at work, followed by two hours with the children and three hours trying to organize everything that needs to be done, it is often absolutely exhausting. The feeling of low energy is not caused by physical activity so much as by mental anxiety.

When we encounter the hundreds of things every day and all day that make us tense, our blood pressure automatically rises and energy reserves fall. This is the worst kind of tiredness. If you are physically exhausted, you fall asleep, but if you are mentally exhausted, you keep going - without your sense of humor and without any patience or pleasure in what you are doing. Massage really can help energize anyone who is overtired by rubbing away the physical signs of stress and releasing tension from muscles. The firmer, faster strokes invigorate both mind and body in the same way that waking up to a cold shower will.

How to Do an Energizing Body Massage
Although, like all massages, this one is more pleasurable done on bare skin, it is effective done through clothing. Consequently, it is ideal for those times when you get home exhausted and need an energy-boost before you go out again. The best positions for the person being massaged are sitting sideways on a straight-acked chair and bent forward onto a pillow on a desk or table top in front, or sitting facing the back of a chair and leaning forwards onto a pillow propped against the chair back. If you are doing it on bare skin, use plenty of oil for the friction or pummeling strokes to stop your hands dragging.

The main massage movements are done from the waist to head, but you can make it more invigorating by doing the optional extra energizing body shakes described in the box at the end of step eight - and you can also do them alone, just to wake yourself up, clear your head or increase energy at any time during a busy day.

1. With the person being massaged leaning forward onto a pillow, pummel all over the upper back, avoiding the spine. Place one hand, palm down and flat, make a firm fist with the other hand and bounce it up and down on top of the flat hand, moving all over the top of the back for several minutes. This stroke is meant to simply vibrate the muscles rather than be a forceful punch.

2. Then make a light 'pinky' finger slap all over the same area. This is a quick up-and-down stroke, as if you are shaking water off your fingers. Use the whole of the little finger and just the tips of the middle and ring fingers to make contact with the back, keeping them floppy and loose. One hand should follow the other, in a light, relaxed flick.

3. Knead the muscles across the tops of the shoulders by squeezing the flesh between your thumbs and fingers for several minutes. Then place your forearms on the shoulders, keeping your hands relaxed and your fingers hanging down loosely. Gently lean down, using your bodyweight to press the muscle across the shoulder top in a downward stretch. Only be as firm as is comfortable, hold the stretch for a count of ten, then relax. Holding the arm tops, gently push the shoulders forward, hold, then release and pull them back to stretch.

4. Roll your knuckles down one side of the spine from the nape of the neck to the buttock. Start 5 cm (2 inches) away from the spine and roll across the long muscles that run parallel to the vertebrae. Make a firm fist, then press the flat part of the fingertips down into the muscle as you roll your hand forward, pressing down through the finger joints and knuckles throughout the roll. Roll one hand after the other continuously, gradually working down the back. Then repeat on the other side.

5. Place flat, firm hands, palms down, on the lower back on either side of the spine, about 5 cm (2 inches) away from it. Slide one hand up as one goes down in a slow, deep, firm stroke so that the skin is being stretched and pulled in opposite directions. Gradually work from the lower back up to the shoulder tops.

6. Place the palm of your left hand on the forehead to support the head as the person being massaged bends forward. Place your thumb and fingers on either side of the vertebrae and knead from the nape of the neck up to the skull bone. Then, using thumbs only, make small circles over the same area.

7. Next, with stiff, straight fingers, rake and gently scrub all over the scalp as if shampooing the hair, from the hairline up to the crown. Finish off with long, smooth stiff-finger strokes all over the head. Then use flat loose fingers to slap and tap the head lightly, in a fast up-and-down movement.

8. Using the little fingers and sides of the hands, do a light finger chop across the shoulder tops. Keep your fingers relaxed and bounce them lightly up and down in a flicking motion, with both hands working together on the same side of the neck. Keep the rhythm going for several minutes on each side.

Extra Energizing Body Shakes
1. Sitting in a chair, turn from the waist and look back as far as you can over one shoulder, hold for a count of six, then look over the other. Repeat.
2. Keeping arms straight, raise one shoulder up as the other goes down, and repeat rapidly 20 times.
3. Press down into the seat of the chair with your palms, then with bent knees, lift up one heel off the floor, followed by the other, as if running on the spot.
4. With relaxed, loose arms, shake your hands vigorously as if flicking water from them. Repeat with them above your head.
5. With your shoulders straight, shake your head as if flicking water from your hair.