The World of 마사지 Museum displays a Victorian massage table from 1878, a vibrating massage table made in 1918. The term massage table arrived sometime during the late 1920s. Prior to that, devices use for massage were call couches. The first massage tables were use during the time of Greeks and Romans and were make of marble slabs called plinths and limestone. In the late 19th century, during the Victorian era, where the term massage couch was use for massage tables that were pieces of furniture. They were usually stuff with horsehair and were upholstered with velvet or similar material.
Horse hair was use as it was more resistant than cotton. Then came the 1920s, when massage tables were develop in the United States. In the 1930s, the first portable massage table was create, made of a wooden frame with metal or wooden legs. The face hole cut into the head appeared sometime in the 1940s. Many practitioners adapted to George Downing’s tables from his 1960s book, “The Massage Book”, which included homemade models which were copied for the next decade until the 1970s when they were commercially manufactured and readily available.
The Battlecreek Company manufactured the first light-weight massage table, introducing their aluminum folding portable table in the 1950s. The face cradle, which attaches to the end of the massage table was first introduced in the 1980s. The first tables were make of wood and vinyl covered foam padding. Now current models are ergonomically design with multilayered padding and come in a variety of styles and colors. Specialty tables are available, such as those for pregnant women, doing special bodywork that requires an extra wide tabletop, among the numerous options available in today’s market. Massage table tops are easily clean and is no longer a problem with hygiene. They are also water/oil resistant and durable. Today, most high quality massage tables are being produce in the United States.
History of massage: The oldest written record of massage is approximately 4000 years old. It was found in a Chinese medical text, dated at around 1800 BC. Hippocrates of Cos (460 to 380 B.C.), the father of medicine and author of the Hippocratic Oath, wrote “the physician must experienced in many things but assuredly also in rubbing (anatripses); for things that have the same name have not always the same effects. For rubbing can bind a joint that is too loose and loosen a joint that is too rigid… Rubbing can bind and loosen; can make flesh (referring to the ability to tone muscle tissue) and cause parts to waste (soften and relax).
Hard rubbing binds; soft rubbing loosens; much rubbing causes parts to waste; moderate rubbing makes them grow.” Europe turned away teachings during the Dark Ages. Pehr Heinrick Ling, from Sweden, used his work in manual therapy with athletes especially gymnasts, which led to his development and research of soft tissue technique known as Swedish Massage. He was regard as the ‘father of modern massage’. There are currently over 70 massage modalities practice in the United States. Among them are Stone Massage, Reflexology, Pregnancy Massage, Thai Yoga Bodywork, Craniosacral Therapy, etc. There are different types of massage, including the common types: Swedish massage, deep massage, sports massage, trigger point massage. Today, there is a continuous rise in ‘preventative medicine’ where modalities such as massage, yoga, acupuncture, nutrition, have taken place in American’s good health practice.