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Monday, March 5, 2012

Lava Shell Massage

Lava Shell Massage

Heated Shells Provide A Relaxing Massage

Lava Shell Massage Lava Shell Massage is a relaxing massage that uses heat, like hot stone massage and La Stone Therapy. During a Lava Shell Massage, the therapist uses real shells from the Philippines to gently massage your body.

The heat comes from inside the Lava Shells due to a mixture of a minerals and algae with salt water and essential oils. When they are combined inside the shell, it creates a chemical reaction that causes heat for one or two hours.

While a Lava Shell massage has some similarities to hot stone massage, it also has some important differences. Read a review of a Lava Shell Massage.

What You Need To Know About Lava Shell Massage

  • Some spas are offering Lava Shell Massage instead of hot stone because the preparation and clean-up is much easier. While it has the element of heat, it is not the same as a hot stone massage.

  • The therapist massages your body using heated clam shells, called Lava Shells. The therapist hold the shell in the palm of their hand while using light Swedish massage strokes. It's primarily a relaxing, soothing massage. If you want deeper work, hot stone is a better choice.

  • The shells have a rubber plug in the bottom. The therapist inserts a packet of minerals and algae into the shell, then adds sea-water and plugs it up again. The chemical interaction between the ingredients creates heat inside the shell that lasts one to two hours.

  • You should speak up if the shells are too warm, especially at the beginning. They cool the more they are used.

  • The shells comes from real Tiger-Striped Clams, which are a traditional part of the Philippine diet. The shells used to be thrown away. Now they're being recycled into this new massage tool.

  • Where Can I Get A Lava Shell Massage?

    Spas that offer Lava Shell Massage include Alvadora Spa at Royal Palms in Phoenix and The Spa at Four Seasons Resort Aviara in Carlsbad (30 minutes north of San Diego).

    How Much Does A Lava Shell Massage Cost? The price will vary by how luxurious the spa is. A day spa might charge $75-$100, a resort spa $125-$175.

    Can I Do Lava Shell Massage At Home?

    There is a Lava Shell home kit for $19.95. It has one shell, a one ounce bottle of oil, and four "charges" for heating the shell four times. You can use it on yourself or another person. Right now it is available at spas that offer the Lava Shell massage. Refill kits with four more charges are $9.95.

    Lomi-Lomi

    Lomi-Lomi

    The Ancient Hawaiian Massage Found Around the World

    Lomi-lomi is an ancient form of Hawaiian massage with a deeply spiritual component. Lomi-lomi originated in Hawaii and is commonly found in Hawaiian spas, community health centers, and private practices, but it has also traveled around the world.

    Traditionally, lomi-lomi (sometimes spelled lomilomi or lomi lomi) was practiced by family members, native healers, warriors and servants of royalty.

    Renowned elder teacher Auntie Margaret Machado calls lomi-lomi "loving touch," according to Makana Risser Chai, author of Hawaiian Massage Lomilomi: Sacred Touch of Aloha.

    What You Need to Know About Lomi-Lomi

    • Lomi-lomi always begins with a prayer, or pule. Some practitioners pray silently before beginning, others softly chant prayers in Hawaiian.

    • Many people associate lomi-lomi with hot stones, but that is a very small part of the practice.

    • Authentic lomi-lomi incorporates breath work. The lomi-lomi therapist breathes deeply, and encourages the guest to use specific breathing patterns.

    • Lomi-lomi varies depending on the spa and the therapist. At the Fairmont Orchid on Hawaii's Big Island, you can walk to your session on a lava path to a thatched hut at water’s edge. At SpaHalekulani in Waikiki, you receive the work in a tranquil treatment room.

    • Lomi-lomi might incorporate a number of healing modalities, including Swedish massage, hot stones, chiropractic, or flowing forearm movements. Again, it depends on the massage therapist.

    • Deeper aspects of the practice involve forgiveness and letting go of resentment. Called ho‘oponopono, this is available only from the most skilled practitioners working in private settings.

    • It's possible to have a high-quality, authentic lomi-lomi treatment in Japan...or a mediocre lomi-lomi in Hawaii. Stay away from practitioners who learned lomi-lomi in a three-hour class. Here are some questions to ask massage therapists when you're looking for a high quality experience.

    LaStone Therapy

    LaStone Therapy

    A Trademarked Massage Therapy That Uses Hot and Cold Stones

    LaStone Therapy is trademarked style of massage that uses both hot AND frozen stones to massage the body. While cold stones may not sound appealing, they feel refreshing on your warmed skin and have a beneficial effect. LaStone Therapy is similar to, but not exactly the same as hot stone massage. LaStone use 54 hot stones, 18 frozen stones, and one room temperature stone.

    LaStone can only be performed by someone who is certified to be a LaStone therapist. This is good because insufficient training is sometimes a problem with hot stone massage.

    LaStone was developed in 1993 by Mary Nelson, a massage therapist and native of Tucson who began to get visions and verbal guidance from her Native American Spirit guide. "With each day's work, I was intuitively led to use more stones, and developed a method of progressively opening up the energy channels (Chakras) of the body," she says.

    The idea quickly caught on and was adapted to become hot stone massage, a treatment that is now found in almost every spa. Watch a video of hot stone massage. LaStone involves a more spiritual or metaphysical component than simple hot stone massage. The stones themselves are called the "Stone Clan People" and are considered to have healing properties.

    What Happens During LaStone Therapy

    LaStone therapy begins with gentle stretches and Swedish massage to warm up the body's muscle tissue. You sit up and the therapist places two rows of warm stones on the treatment table in alignment with both sides of your spine. The therapist covers them with a soft towel to protect you from the heat, then assists as you lay back down on them.

    Then he or she places stones of varying weights on the body's key energy channels, including the seven main chakras. Pebble-sized warm stones are placed between your toes and medium-sized flat stones are placed in your palms. The therapist also uses both hot and cool stones as an extension of his or her hand while doing Swedish massage.

    Alternating between heat and cold both stimulates and relaxes the circulatory system, which is very detoxifying for the body. In cooperation with heated stones, chilled marble stones create a dramatic movement of fluids within the body.

    Personally, I've had many mediocre hot stone massages, where the therapist was literally "heavy-handed" with the hot stones. It's not that easy for the therapist to maintain their sensitivity of touch with a big rock in their hand! And the body can start to overheat.

    The best hot stone massage I've had, by far, was LaStone Therapy. It may have just been the individual therapist, but she was highly skilled with the stones, which really did seem to come to life in her hands.

    As always, speak up if anything is uncomfortable during your LaStone Therapy massage.

    Hot Stone Massage on the Feet

    Hot Stone Massage on the Feet

    The stones feel so amazing on the feet. On the feet is where we have our reflex points. So basically we have are certain energetic points that are in association with the whole body, mostly the organ systems. We have energetic pathways that are in association with the organ systems that run throughout the whole body. So when you are working the feet it is just complete relaxation.

    And now I am going to have my client turn over so we can work the front side of the body.

    That was our hot stone massage. Thank you for watching! To learn more, visit us at About.com.

    Hot Stone Massage Treatment

    Hot Stone Massage Treatment

    Now because the temperature of the stones is very hot, it could be a little extreme when you initially touch the skin. So I just like to roll them in my hands a little bit and allow the heat and warmth of the stones to generate into my hand -- and then introduce the warmth through my hand first. And then we can go right in to utilizing the stones. I am really just going right in, like we would do Swedish work. We would go right into the muscle tissues and working the muscles as I would with my hands, but with the actual warmth of the stones.

    And you have to be mindful when you are working with stones on a client, because the stones are stones, and they are very hard. So you can tend to sometimes go a little too deep, so you have to always check in with your client, make sure the temperature of the stones and the pressure is okay.

    We use probably about twenty to twenty-five stones within a session. They vary in size so you can work different areas of the body.

    Hot Stone Massage Temperature

    Hot Stone Massage Temperature

    So the first thing I am going to do is to take my stones out. So I just take out a few stones, because I am going to allow them to cool off, and while they are cooling off, I am going to apply some oil. You want to make sure the body is nice and well-oiled when you are doing your hot stone massage, so that way the stones glide easily

    What is a Hot Stone Massage?

    What is a Hot Stone Massage?

    Hot stone therapy is a highly detoxifying type of massage. The stones themselves actually become the tools that you use, and the heat helps to relax the muscles and assimilate the circulation, allowing the toxins to come up to the surface of the skin. At the same time, we incorporate a Swedish massage technique, or you could also incorporate a Shiatsu Massage, and depending on those two, you can help to release the muscle even further, because of the heat.