For those of us who’ve already discovered it, massage is just about the niftiest thing on the planet. Better than chocolate. Better than pizza. It's a great way to feel better, look better, treat people better, and treat yourself better too. It’s one hundred percent good for you, with no artificial additives or ingredients, and it's easy to do. In fact, one of the best things about massage is that you don't need a lot of fancy expensive equipment in order to get one or give one. All you really need to get started is a human body. Got one? Great! Then you're ready to go.

First, let me introduce myself and explain what qualifies me to teach you about this subject in the first place. I've been massaging people for a living since I was 23 years old. That's more than 16 years and well over 10,000 massages. I've trained other massage therapists around the country and the world at resorts, in workshops and in massage schools, and I've written a few books on the subject.

But there's something more to it than that. If all I were offering you was technical experience, analytical knowledge and rah-rah enthusiasm, I wouldn't blame you for approaching this book with indifference or even boredom.

Yet another book about the beauties and wonders of massage strokes and maneuvers? Wax on, wax off, YAWN.

The Massage Adventure

Instead, what I hope to offer you is more than technique, more than know-how, even more than increased pleasure and greater health in your everyday life. What I will be trying to get across in all of the pages to follow is a new way to BE. I’ve transformed my own life into an ongoing unfolding massage adventure and would be most sincerely honored to act as your guide along a similar journey of inner and outer exploration. There’s a big, wild world out there, and there’s an even bigger wilder world inside your own body and mind. Massage is an excellent vehicle through which to explore both.

Touching other people with the intention of making them feel better and improving the quality of their lives is one of the most worthy ways to spend one's time as a human being. Massage, in this sense, is more than a job. It’s a calling, a cause, a mission. I realize, of course, that this may sound a tad overzealous. Not everybody feels this way, which is good because if they did feel this way then they'd all be massage therapists too, like I am, and there would be nobody left to do other important jobs like delivering office furniture, piloting commercial airplanes, and making incorrect predictions about the stock market.

But, regardless of their “real” jobs, whether they know it or not, everybody in this world is a living, breathing massage sponge. Take you, for example. Right now, before you get to the next paragraph, take a moment to become aware of your body. Where are you? What is touching you? A chair on your bottom? A bed on your whole backside? A carpeted floor pressing against your feet? Somewhere, something is touching you, unless you are reading this introduction to Massage for Dummies in free fall during a skydiving expedition (in which case your clothing and the harness over your shoulders are still touching you, not to mention the friction of the air rushing by). In fact, this entire world is reaching out and massaging you 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Gravity is the grip, and everything else in the hand.

Those people with a more spiritual bent might even be tempted to say that "God" or the "Supreme Being" or the "Ultimate Massage Therapist" is touching us all the time, as reflected in mystical songs throughout the ages, such as the ancient Gregorian chant, Omnis Mundus In Manus Habeo, which, roughly translated, means "He's got the whole world in His hands. He's got the whole wide world…"

You're Not Alone
The world is filled with millions of people who have already started their own massage adventures. In fact, in the U.S. alone, approximately 28 million people have received a professional massage, and that number is growing quickly. Millions more have exchanged massages on a non-professional basis with friends and family. Insurance companies are starting to reimburse for it, doctors are including it in their practices, practically every hair salon in every city is turning into a day spa and offering massage to clients. You’ve probably seen massage on shows like Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. It’s everywhere, and yet, if you’re like most people, you still haven’t received a massage, and you have quite a few questions about how it works and what it can do for you. If that’s the case, then this is the book for you.

You Don’t Have to Be a Hippie ...
Let me reassure you right here at the beginning that I'm not going to ask you to do anything you're uncomfortable with. In fact, if you want to receive a massage while wearing a formal ankle-length ball gown or a football uniform complete with pads, that's fine with me. It might cut down on the effectiveness of certain massage techniques, but I'm not here to tell you what your style should be. I’m here to help you feel comfortable about including massage in your life in whatever ways you see fit.
In this book you're going to find lots of ways to make massage a part of your day-to-day activities so it becomes as natural as brushing your teeth, driving your car, or peeling the stickers off sales items you buy as Christmas presents. And in order to help you accomplish this, I've enlisted the help of a pretty impressive character, my co-author, Michel Van Welden. First of all, you should know that Michel is a man. In France, where he’s from, many men are called Michel. He’s a physical therapist and naturopathic therapist who’s traveled the world teaching other therapists and physicians about massage. An expert on physiology and the skin, he has been personally responsible for getting the FDA in this country to sit up and pay serious attention to the effects of certain kinds of massage. The way he accomplished this was through several highly complex laboratory experiments studying (I’m not making this up) the effects of massage on pigs We will defer to Michel’s clinical expertise on many crucial issues, and my hope is that his scientific knowledge will set your mind at ease regarding the effectiveness and safety of massage. Throughout your average, everyday paragraphs in this book, though, it will be me, Steve, acting as your guide. Together, Michel and I have created a book that goes beyond any other of its kind to offer you everything you need to know to change your life from a dull, drab, non-massage existence into an exciting massage adventure.

This Book Is For You If ...
As stated earlier, this book is for anyone with a body, which should qualify almost every single reader. Disembodied spirits and poltergeists will find it difficult to get the correct amount of friction necessary to perform effective massage maneuvers and should therefore abstain. Certain people in particular will quickly discover the most obvious benefits in reading these pages; you know who you are, and this book is especially for you if:

* you've ever wanted to touch another person with grace, compassion, and caring
* you want to share a new level of communication with the people you're close to
* you want to increase your well-being and reduce many types of pain
* you have a desire to enhance various aspects of your life, including athletic performance, job efficiency, and even your love life
* you have a handicap of some kind and would like to discover how in fact massage is the therapy of choice for many people with physical limitations
* you want to pursue this adventure more seriously and are perhaps thinking about becoming a massage pro yourself
* you think knowing how to give a good massage might be a neat way to get more dates

So How Do I Get Started, Already?
By now you're probably saying, "All right, Steve. You've convinced me. My muscles are sore and I'm ready to get going. How do I get started with this whole massage thing anyway?"

The best way to use this book is to choose the subject you’re most interested in and then jump right in at that point. Many of you may be eager to start learning how to give a massage right away, in which case you can zoom ahead to part three. I highly encourage you to read all the chapters in that section leading up to the how-to part, however, instead of simply flipping through the photographs and list of instructions. It is, after all, the attitudes and intentions with which you approach massage that make the biggest difference as to what you get out of it.

For those of you who like to approach your reading in a systematic fashion, you will find that each part of the book builds upon the one before it in what is, I hope, a logical manner, so that by the end you'll come away knowing just about as much as you'd ever want to know about massage, unless of course you start pursuing it as a passion and profession in your life as I have, in which case the learning will never end.
Here, then, are the subjects that you’ll find spread out before your eager eyes and fingers as you begin with part one:

Part 1: discovering massage for greater health and happiness
In this part you'll find the background information you need to understand how the techniques you're going to learn actually work, and where they came from in the first place. You'll learn all kinds of interesting things about your skin and what's beneath it, for example, and what it is about massage that helps your whole body feel better. If you’re up to the task, you can test your touch-ability in a specially designed quiz. You'll also encounter important vocabulary words and, perhaps most importantly, finally find out what all those massage gizmos at The Sharper Image are all about.

Part 2: the art of receiving massage
What, there's an art to receiving too, you ask? You mean I can't just lie there like a blob and let someone else do all the work? That's correct. Massage, in this respect, is like the tango, and you know what they say about the tango. In this part you'll learn how to develop the fine art of "tuning in" which allows you to fully enjoy the benefits and pleasures that await you with massage. I'll describe how you can invite healthy pleasure into your life, choose the right style of massage for you and your body, choose a good massage therapist, and start receiving massages just like the pros do, with all the trimmings like proper breathing, meditative awareness, and other advanced techniques for basically blissing out.

Part 3: the art of giving massage
Here's the "meat" of the book, so to speak, with all the pretty pictures that you'll be tempted to flip to immediately and never draw your attention away from again. Resist this temptation, oh hedonistic reader! In fact, go ahead right now (if you haven't already) and flip forward to the color photos, and then come back after a couple of minutes. Go ahead. I'll wait.
There, satisfied? Now promise you'll look through the other important sections of part three also, such as chapter nine on how to get into the giving state of mind in the first place. Make no mistake about it, to give a good massage requires some effort and energy, and you'll do well to prepare mentally beforehand so you don't burn yourself out. You'll also learn vital information about when and how not to massage people, including yourself.

Part 4: massage at work
If you’re suffering from some of the typical aches and pains of office workers and computer users everywhere, rush directly to part four, Massage at Work. In this part I'll give you simple massage moves you can apply to your own aching body right at your desk, and I'll offer an entire chapter on how to relieve sore, tired feet with a special kind of massage known as reflexology (don't worry, you'll learn all about that strange sounding word soon enough). Hint: you might even be able to use this part of the book as evidence to help convince your boss to pay for professional chair-massage right in the work place. You'll see what I mean.

Part 5: living the good life--massage for every body
In the fifth part, Living the Good Life, you can take your pick from a smorgasbord of offerings, reading through the chapters that intrigue you in whichever order you choose. Whether you're an athlete, a pregnant woman, or a world traveler, or whatever, you're sure to pick up a ton of useful info here that you can use to integrate massage into your life. And, if you're really serious about all this, I'm going to give you some practical advice about how to begin your own career as a massage therapist.

Part 6: the part of tens
The last part contains five lists of ten quick ways you can improve your life with massage, including suggestions for great places to take massage classes, outstanding locations to receive incredible massages, quick massage tips to ease stress, ways to offer massage as a gift, and, for you pet lovers, ten massage techniques designed especially for pooches and kitties.

Appendices
Just flip to the back of the book to find all kinds of important stuff, such as a web site that lists thousands of professional massage therapists in many locations. You'll also be able to use this handy reference to source out other useful books on the subject, as well as equipment, supplies, massage schools, training centers, and more.

Massaging the Icons
Throughout this book you will notice lots of little round things in the margins, calling your attention to various details in the text. These are called icons, and I have included some particularly pertinent ones for people learning the ropes of the massage world. To wit, you have your:

Massage Tales icon, which lets you know there's a real-life massage story from an actual person in the adjacent paragraph. These stories might leave you happy, misty-eyed, or thoughtful, depending on the subject matter, but they all go to prove how powerful an influence massage can be in your life. The icon is a little massage table, which is a folding padded piece of furniture used to massage people upon.

Expert Opinion icon. This one signifies that some sagacious and perhaps famous individual is contributing various words of wisdom on the massage subject at hand, words which usually highlight my own brilliant remarks. The figure is a wise-professor-looking cartoon head, kind of like an Albert Einstein of the massage world.

Tip icon, which clues you in right away to the presence of some especially important information. Perhaps I'll reveal a secret technique for massaging your way into Harvard Business School, for example. Perhaps not. You'll have to check the tip to be sure. At the very least, you'll find some quick and easy pointers to make your learning experience as pleasurable as possible.

Caution icon. The practice of massage is not without its potential dangers. For instance, once after receiving three massages in one day as part of my job interviewing therapists for positions at a new spa, I turned into a human noodle and kept banging my knees into furniture. Seriously, though, there are certain things you have to watch out for when practicing massage, and various reasons why you should not offer massage in certain circumstances (what we professionals call contraindications). You'll catch them right away when you see this icon.

Massage Jargon icon. Not wanting to make you feel like you're a wallflower just observing the massage-dance of life, I'm going to do my best to explain in plain English everything you need to know on the subject. When, out of necessity, I use some massage terminology that seems foreign or complex to you, I'll warn you first with one of these little icons. And, in fact, the last section of chapter five contains an English-massage dictionary to help you learn some of the technical terms and massage-specific words you'll come across. You'll also find that these words are italicized and listed in the glossary at the back of the book.

Sharing The Adventure
Massage, ultimately, is a way to share with others and to express yourself in a direct, hands-on way, and I hope this book plays a big part in helping you discover this. If you’d like to share some thoughts about what you learn on your own massage adventure, you can contact me in care of IDG Books Worldwide, or you can visit me on the web at www.royaltreatment.com and send email to steve@royaltreatment.com. You can contact Michel Van Welden via email at michelvp@worldnet.att.net. We'll both be most pleased to hear how your journey is going.

Now, let's begin.