Circulatory Massage was inspired by my initial massage training at a vocational school named Lindsey Hopkins in 1975. We occupied one entire floor of the building, and the training was very reminiscent of massage in the (19)40’s and 50’s which included hydrotherapy: our space included a sauna, jacuzzi, steam room, Hubbard tanks, salt-glow table, and a needle shower. To top that off, we were trained to administer colon irrigation with a Dierker Machine — but let me return to Circulatory Massage!!
The first thing we were made aware of is that our circulatory system consists of arteries and veins, and that the arteries supply oxygen to our muscles and organs. They are buried deep because the heart is pumping oxygenated blood to our muscles, and if an artery is somehow cut, the heart could quickly pump out all our arterial blood and we would die!!
Conversely, the veins are superficial and are carrying “used blood” back up to the heart, to cycle thru the lungs and obtain more oxygen. So how can a vein deliver blood uphill, against gravity, and with no help from the heart to pump it back up? Here’s how it works: we have “one-way” valves throughout our veins which won’t let the blood move any way but up. Contracting our muscles puts pressure on the veins, and that delivers the used blood to the heart, to be cycled through the lungs for more oxygen.
Rule Number One at Lindsey Hopkins is “Always Massage Towards the Heart” — lest you put too much pressure going in the opposite direction, forcing the used blood the wrong way through the one-way valves, and damaging their ability to help the return flow to the heart. This concept was visibly cemented in our minds when we went to visit a mortuary college on a field trip: their first chore to prepare bodies for burial is to remove all the organs (heart, liver, pancreas etc.) from the abdomen, and the second was to remove all the blood from the veins, and to replace it with embalming fluid. They did this first by making a cut in a major vein at the base of the neck, and then massaging with deep draining strokes toward the heart each arm until no more blood appeared. Then they had a metal tube connected to a supply of embalming fluid which they inserted into the cut where the blood had been drained, and massaged in the wrong direction until the arm got filled with embalming fluid!! I thought to myself two things: first, one really can force the blood the wrong way through the veins, although I didn’t know about the integrity of a dead person’s valves! Second, that this procedure would probably do a good job of preserving a body!
So – Circulatory Massage mostly consists of long deep strokes with broad hands, helping to return used blood back to the heart, in a fairly brisk manner. I will usually start with the person lying face up and do treatment work for 10 – 15 minutes on the neck and shoulders, where most people have tension or experience discomfort or pain. Then all limbs are treated to brisk deep effleurage in conjunction with other massage strokes, ending with the back. The result is that the person feels as relaxed as if they had just finished a whole hour of cardio, and but never “lifted a finger!”