About the development of massage
The date of origin of the massage is lost in the sources of ancient folk medicine, and at present it is impossible to give preference to authorship to one or another people. Probably the very first application of massage techniques( stroking, rubbing, kneading) was an instinctive gesture to relieve pain in the bruised place. Even philological attempts to find out the origin of the word "massage" once again attest to the ancient existence of this concept. The word "massage" came either from the Sanskrit root "march", or the Arab "masses"( touch, feel, gently press), or the Greek word knead, crumple, stroke, or Latin "macero"( soften, soften), or Hebrewto feel, or, perhaps, this French "massage".
The history of the origin and development of massage is told by ancient literary sources, the most famous of which are created in the countries of the Ancient East, as well as in Egypt, Greece and Rome.
Ancient China. The ancient Chinese medicine paid much attention not only to massage, but also to other restorative methods of treatment: gymnastics, diet, water procedures, etc. For example, about the book "Kong-fu", published in 2698 before and.e.and the devoted historian Dujardin Bomen wrote: "By becoming an exclusively scientific basis on the issue of massage, I can report that the most accurate description of the types of massage you will find in the Chinese book"Kong-fu". "
In another book, "Nei Ching"( IX century BC, "The Book of the Inner Man") it says: "If, under the influence of fright, the nerves and blood vessels of the human body are clogged, the human body is numb, then with the help of massage it is possibleheal him. "
For the first time in the world already in the VI.n.e.in the medical institutes of China they taught massage and there were medical and gymnastic schools for the training of doctors - "taocce", used to treat massage and gymnastics.
Ancient Egypt. The source of our information about medicine in Egypt are hieroglyphic inscriptions on sarcophagi and pyramids dating back to the period 4000 years BC.e. The most ancient image of the massage is in the Assyrian section of the New Museum in Berlin, where there was a bas-relief of alabaster, depicting two people, one of which massages another( 2700 BC).
Ancient Greece. Massage, along with rubbing the body with oils and using a bath, although it came from Egypt, but this art reached a higher altitude in Greece. Currently, experts of European countries believe that the history of the development of therapeutic and sports massage begins with the days of Hellas. The father of ancient medicine Hippocrates( about 460-377 BC), for example, wrote about the treatment of dislocations: "In many things the doctor must be experienced and no less in massage, for massage can bind the joint too relaxed and softenthe joint is very tight. "
Greece has an honorable role in the history of the development of physical education. The Roman historian Rufus Curtius( 1st century) wrote: "While the intellectual education of the youth was granted to parents, public gymnasiums cared about bodily development, because, from the point of view of the public good, the most important goal of education was to nurture a new generation for the state,consisting of strong, beautiful, brave and adroit young men. "Physical education in its strict sequence began with a 7-year-old age. And the athletes of Ancient Greece before the competition and after them came to the disposal of "pedotrirobes"( gymnastics teachers) who washed them, rubbed them, smeared them and sprinkled with the smallest sand. And it is not surprising that the famous aphorism "In a healthy body - a healthy spirit" belongs to Democritus( about 460-370 BC).
Ancient Rome. Ancient Romans, like the Greeks, introduced massage into the system of physical education of youth and warriors.
The most famous physician of the time, Asklepiad ( III BC), divided the massage into dry and with oil, strong and weak, prolonged and short-term. He was the initiator of a vibrating massage, recommending concussions. Only more than 2000 years later, a neurologist from France Jean Martine Charcot( 1825-1893) injected concussions with the goal of calming the nervous-excited people. Another great theorist of ancient medicine, Claudius Galen( ca. 130-200 AD), developed indications for morning and evening massage, described the technique of its various types and their effects on the body. Thus, the Romans already in those distant times knew how to distinguish between a preliminary massage and a restorative massage.
In the countries of the East , the outstanding Tajik scientist Avicenna( Abu Ali Ibn Sina, 980-1037) gave the massage a great importance, considering it as an effective tool in the fight against fatigue and as a remedy. He distinguished massage strengthening, relaxing, preparatory( before physical exercises), restorative, etc. In his book "The Canon of Medical Science"( book 1) he wrote: "Massage has the following goals: consolidation of loose organs, hardening of soft, loosening of dense organsand softening of solid bodies ".
In the East, the massage was performed in the baths, with a lot of passive movements, and was performed not only by the hands, but also by the feet of the masseur. Pushkin described the oriental massage in a Tiflis bath in 1829 during a trip to Arzrum( Erzurum): "Gassan began by spreading me on a warm stone floor, after which he began to break my limbs, pull out joints,beat me hard with my fist;I did not feel the slightest pain, but an amazing relief. After that, he rubbed me with a woolen mitten for a long time, and, with a strong splash of warm water, began to wash his soaped linen bladder. Sensation is inexplicable: hot soap pours you like air. After the bubble, Gassan released me into the bath;so the ceremony ended. "
Massage used ancient Slavic tribes and Karelo-Finns, who had well developed techniques such as stroking, rubbing and patting. A great recognition enjoyed bathing in the baths and rubbing tricks throughout the body along with patting and quilting the body with birch and oak brooms. This form of massage, which in the ancient Slavs was called "horsetail," speaks for the fact that often one tribe paid another tribute to birch brooms as items of prime necessity. This procedure in the "Tale" of the Russian writer of the fifteenth century Nestor-Iskander( the years of birth and death are unknown) is described as follows: "How are they washing, horsetailing. .. seeing the trees of the woods and burning them with velms, and getting bogged down, and being nazis,, and they will take the branch, and the beats will begin. .. and they pour water on the student and live like that. "
After the fall of the Roman state, the history of the development of massage in Europe is interrupted virtually until the end of the XIX century, although in every century outstanding scientists appeared, pointing to the forgotten method of doctors of Hellas and Rome. So, for example, at the beginning of the XIX century in Sweden P. Ling( 1776-1839) and his students created a massage system, called "Swedish".As a matter of fact, it was blindly borrowed from ancient Greeks, Romans and Chinese a set of receptions, elements and forms of massage. The abundance of varieties suggested by Ling and his disciples hampered the development of the massage.
Russian doctors with massage was introduced by the Swedish doctor Berglind, who came to Russia in 1848, lived in Petersburg for 40 years and published the first manual on massage with the section of medical gymnastics.
In the second half of the past and the beginning of this century, Russian scientists IV Zabludovsky( 1882-1913), I. 3. Gopadze( 1886), VA Shtange( 1889), VF Snegirev( 1890),EN Zalesova( 1898-1910) and others have begun their studies to study the mechanisms of the massage effect. They are given the physiological justification for the effect of massage, individual devices and their varieties, the indications and contraindications to the use of massage, organizational questions, etc. were studied. These works made it possible to create from massage one of the essential means of treating a number of diseases and restoring the capacity for work.
Privatdozent of the Military Medical Academy in St. Petersburg IV Zabludovsky in 1882 wrote theses) "Materials on the issue of the effect of massage on healthy people" and produced over a hundred different works on the rationale and technique of massage, which allows us to considerhis father of modern massage.
To implement the massage in medical practice, a lot was done by EN Zalesova, who founded the first school( courses) of massage, medical and pedagogical gymnastics in St. Petersburg( 1891).
As a result of a number of works by many scientists - AF Verbov( 1924-1966), AE Shcherbak( 1936), IM Sarkizov-Serazini( 1939-1963), AR Kirichinsky( 1949-1959), VE Vasilieva and VK Stasenkov( 1952-1956), and in recent years AA Biryukov, AN Burov, AM Tyurin and others - a new massage technique was created,built on the basis of the classical, but different from foreign techniques in that it provides for layered massaging of all tissues with a simultaneous selective effect on the reflexogenic zones reflecting segmental connections of internalbodies with certain areas of the integument of the body. This technique also takes into account the functional state of the organism. Properly performed massage( when correctly selected and conducted receptions, determined by their intensity and dose, etc.) is a powerful tool for treatment and recovery of working capacity, relieving fatigue and maintaining the general tone of the body, promoting health and preventing diseases.
The value of the massage system adopted in our country is now confirmed by specialists from many countries.