How To Revive An Athlete With Tapotement Massage Video

Tapotement is a Swedish massage technique that can relive tension. Get expert tips and advice on massage and other treatments in this video.

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Use the side of hands
Work on the muscular areas of the body
Do not pound on bone
Use fists on larger muscles

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Malu works for Retreat Massage Therapy as a massage therapist. She is well versed in techniques that are particularly helpful for athletes.

MALU LUJAN: Okay, so we are going to do a technique that is called tapotement, and it is basically a form of percussion. It is tapping or patting or pounding, and it feels really great. It is a really good way to revitalize somebody who is sore or tired, and it is also very easy on the person who is doing the massage. And you can do it a lot of different ways. One way that you can do it is with your hands. You just use the side of your hand and you work in the fleshy muscular areas of the body. You do not want to really do this on bones unless they are covered by a fair amount of muscle or skin tissue. The back area, it just feels absolutely wonderful to have somebody pound or tap on this area, and you do it in between the shoulder blades and the spine. I am not working on her spine at all and I am not completely working on her shoulder blades. You can go down the muscles of the back. You can use your fists, especially on the butt, any large muscle like that. It is really helpful. And you would think that it feels really hard but actually the person receiving it does not experience this as being really hard. So I am using the sides of my hands again, and you can also vary the pace on this. You can use both hands at the same time. This feels really amazing. You can do it on the feet, and it is just the most refreshing feeling when you use both hands together like this and go down the length of the legs and onto the feet. You will actually--and then you just finish up by putting your hands on that area. Usually I finish with their ankles. You will cause them to feel like they have got a little buzz from what you did. So it's a wonderful technique.

How to Revive an Athlete with Tapotement Massage Video

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