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Have you ever felt during a massage that the masseuse was just not strong enough to push through the ridges of tension in your shoulder blades, and at the same time not gentle enough to melt the tension in your neck or legs? Then try Japanese Hot Stone Therapy, a post-modern combination of gentle massage with ancient tools of muscular penetration.

Japanese Hot Stone Therapy is based upon ANMA, the oldest form of East Asian Massage. It was developed over 7000 years ago and is a kneading, rotation, and vibration based technique. Japanese Hot Stone Massage is much more than placing stones along side of the body, or sliding stones over the body. An expert will *hook* into a muscle with the stone and then gently rotate and/or knead the muscle*then apply pressure and use a rapid vibration technique to further relax the muscles and drive the heat deeper. It is quite an experience to feel the deeply relaxing, penetrating heat from the basalt stones alternating with the toning and refreshing coolness of the marble stones.

The use of extremes of temperature has long been scientifically and medically proven to be of benefit to the body. Those who wish to relax and tone their muscles with a minimum of effort see this in the use of ice packs for muscle trauma and the use of saunas. Stone massage makes you feel deeply relaxed, allowing you to let go of all the stress that is held within your body.

One of the best things about having a massage therapy career is when clients tell you after a massage how great they feel. With a career in massage therapy, you can directly help people one-on-one to meet various goals: relaxation, stress reduction, health promotion, pain management, injury recovery, and relief for specific medical conditions.

Massage is generally defined as the manual manipulation of soft tissue. That means as a massage therapist you use your hands, forearms, elbows, and, in some massage styles, even your feet and knees, to work on muscles, tendons, ligaments, and fascia (soft connective tissue) of the human body.