Hot Rock Massage

I thought that hot rocks were just a cool looking thing in the movies. I didn't think that they would make a massage that much different. Now it depends on whether you have a good massage therapist in the first place. Hot rocks will not improve a bad therapist, but they do a a certain something to a good massage.

Have you ever noticed with a good massage therapist how their hands will heat up during a massage? Then their hands seem to penetrate deeper and help smooth out the muscles better.

Well hot rocks kind of give that heat from the very beginning. The heat from the rock penetrates deeply into the muscle. The smooth rocks glide over the skin and the tense muscles. Its like they help the therapist's hands give a deep tissue massage with less resistance.

And then they use the rocks on your trigger points. I won't go much into trigger points here. They are tense knots in the muscles that radiate over your body and cause pain. Because they radiate, the cause of the pain may not be where you expect it. A good massage therapist can find those points and get them to release. I find trigger points help relieve my migraines.

The twist with the hot rocks is that they put the heated rock directly on the trigger point and then lightly tap it with another rock. The little shock startles the muscle and makes it release. I've had this done with little electric shocks (like at the chiropractor) but I really like how it worked with the hot rocks. The heat pentrated deep and the vibration really helped.

If you've never tried a hot rock massage, then I highly recommend it!
Beth