Clark Wolf is also a believer. With almost religious devotion, the food and restaurant consultant from Manhattan climbs half naked onto a table once a week, stretches out, shuts his eyes and indulges his stress-stricken muscles in the deep rub of a full-body massage. "I'm not looking for the magic button to make me perfect and young and live forever," said Mr. Wolf, a fit 45-year-old who has taken massage seriously for 12 years. "All I know is that massage works for me."
Charles A. Dambacher, 100, relishes the therapeutic value of massage. A reluctant convert, he has a therapist visit him at his home in northern California. "I find it is very relaxing and very medically beneficial," said Mr. Dambacher, who had to give serious thought to having a stranger touch his body. "Good circulation is just like a fresh stream through the body rather than a stagnant one."
After decades of being relegated to the margins of hedonistic exercise for the pampered and bored -- or worse, a wink-and-nod cover for prostitution -- massage, one of the oldest health treatments, is out of the parlor and finding enormous popularity among millions of Americans, from athletes to the aged.
With many of its techniques rooted in 4,000-year-old Chinese beliefs, massage is being used as a counterbalance in the lives of the exercise-exhausted and stressed-out. Indeed, the various styles of massage are quickly becoming as familiar to many as the best brands of low-fat yogurt. Even the Internet is loaded with thousands of Web sites and bulletin boards touting the "regenerative" virtues of massage.
According to the American Massage Therapy Association, the oldest and largest group representing massage therapists, there are 120,000 to 150,000 massage therapists in the United States. (The industry has discarded the terms "masseur" and "masseuse" as not sounding professional.) Membership in the 52-year-old organization -- now 24,000 -- more than doubled between 1990 and 1995, it said. Licensing requirements vary from state to state.
There are several explanations for the renaissance of massage. Many experts say it is a result of a convergence of the trend-making baby boomers approaching middle-age, a growing interest in exercise physiology, an increase in skepticism about the health-care establishment and a new-age quest to explore alternative methods for getting and staying well.
From hourlong rubs in well-appointed therapists' offices to 10-minute massages at Great American Back Rub stores to gentle neck rubs at neighborhood nail salons, there is a massage for practically every body and budget.
The three basic massage techniques used in the United States are Swedish, shiatsu and reflexology. In recent years, sports massage, a combination of Swedish and shiatsu, has become widespread among both world-class athletes and weekend players. Here is a look at the four techniques.
Swedish
Swedish massage concentrates on improving the movement of blood and lymph through the muscles. The strokes on the body tend to be long, smooth and rhythmic. Its goal, said instructors at the Finger Lakes School of Massage in Ithaca, N.Y., is to relieve aching muscles, increase relaxation and create a sense of general well-being.
The technique was developed in the early 1800's by Per Henrik Ling, a Swede who borrowed heavily from Chinese, Egyptian, Greek and Roman styles of body work. While at first challenged by the Swedish medical establishment, the "Swedish movements," as Mr. Ling referred to his technique, were gradually embraced by Sweden's royal family and its state physicians and spread throughout Europe.
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