Mas­sage is defined as the appli­ca­tion of var­i­ous tech­niques to the mus­cu­lar struc­ture and soft tis­sues of the human body. It is the appli­ca­tion of soft-tissue manip­u­la­tion tech­niques to the body, gen­er­ally intended to reduce stress and fatigue while improv­ing circulation.
Mas­sage ther­apy tech­niques include apply­ing fixed or mov­able pres­sure, hold­ing, vibra­tion, rock­ing, fric­tion, knead­ing and com­pres­sion using pri­mar­ily the hands, fingers, fore­arms, elbows or even the feet. All of the tech­niques are used for the ben­e­fit of the mus­cle-skele­tal system, circulatory-lymphatic, ner­vous, and other sys­tems of the body. In fact, mas­sage ther­apy pos­i­tively influ­ences the over­all health and well-being of the client.
The many vari­a­tions of mas­sage account for sev­eral dif­fer­ent tech­niques.
Mas­sage excludes diag­no­sis, pre­scrip­tion, manip­u­la­tion or adjust­ments of the human skele­tal struc­ture, or any other ser­vice, pro­ce­dure or ther­apy which requires a license to prac­tice ortho­pe­dics, phys­i­cal ther­apy, podi­a­try, chi­ro­prac­tic, osteopa­thy, psy­chother­apy, acupunc­ture, or any other pro­fes­sion or branch of medicine.