Swedish
This is the best known, and most basic types of massage. Perfect for relaxation, and great for someone who is new to massage.
Swedish massage can help increase blood circulation, ease muscle tension, improve muscle flexibility, decrease stress, reduce recovery time for muscle strain, and flush out metabolic wastes out of the body tissues.
Deep Tissue
Deep tissue massage focuses on deeper muscle tissue, and fascia. Deep tissue massage is similar to the Swedish massage technique, but the deeper pressure is beneficial in releasing chronic muscle tension, breaking up connective tissue adhesions, alleviating tension and pain due to overuse, injury, poor posture, and stress.
Massage Cupping
Massage cupping is basically the inverse of your typical massage. Massage cupping uses suction to to tug the skin, tissues and muscles upwards. It is seen as an effective, non-invasive, inexpensive, and safe form of treatment that can be used by itself or in combination with other forms of therapeutic approaches.
Prenatal Massage
Prenatal massage helps a pregnant women to relax tense muscles and reduce stress and anxiety associated with labor. It also works to relieve pain.
The expanding womb puts a lot stress on the shoulders, abdominal area and back muscles of the mother, and lower back pain is very common during pregnancy. A prenatal massage therapist can apply pressure to specific sore spots to relieve tension and pain.
Sports Massage
Sports massage is designed to help atheletes prepare their bodies for optimal performance, recover after a big event, or function well during training. It uses various massage techniques, such as: swedish, NMT (Trigger Point Therapy), deep tissue, effleurage, friction, pettrisage, vibration, shaking, compression, cross-fiber friction, range of motion, and stretching. Sports massage can be used as warm-up, to increase blood flow, stimulate neurological pathways, aid recovery from exertion, increase flexibility, improve strength, or improve posture.