Registered massage therapist Eric Purves in Victoria, British Columbia, demonstrates a basic effleurage to a patient. (Photo courtesy of Eric Purves)
Swedish massage often brings to mind a relaxing experience in a spa-like setting, maybe with white robes, low lighting, aromatherapy, and bliss. While the techniques do have roots in Sweden, it became a catch-all term for generic relaxation massage, typically slow gentle strokes with a lubricant, such as oil or lotion.
Swedish massage involves gliding strokes and gentle kneading and is often first taught in massage schools before students are introduced to other types of massage, like deep tissue, sports massage, and trigger point therapy.
While Swedish massage is taught in a series of sequences, massage therapists often customize it each client’s or patient’s needs and preferences and even blend other massage techniques with Swedish.
Swedish massage benefits
Swedish massage has been shown to provide short-term pain relief for various conditions. A 2017 systematic review published in Advances in Mind-Body Medicine found that Swedish massage may improve nasal breathing and cleanliness in children, reduce low back pain for nurses, and improve adrenocortical function in infants—based on 11 trials. (However, there is no access to the full paper, and the authors’ emails could not be found or verified.)
A 2025 systematic review published in Rheumatoid International found that massage therapy—including Swedish, aromatherapy, and foot reflexology—may reduce the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. These symptoms include pain, poor joint function, high inflammatory markers and cortisol levels.
In terms of mental health, a series of massage treatments has been shown to consistently reduce depression symptoms in adults, according to a review by Dr. Christopher Moyer. “Single sessions of [massage] significantly reduce state anxiety, the momentary emotional experiences of apprehension, tension, and worry in both adults and in children, and multiple sessions of [massage], performed over a period of days or weeks, significantly reduce trait anxiety,” Moyer wrote.
However, he warned the claim that massage can reduce stress hormones has not been scientific established yet. He wrote that claims may come from a common mistake in research: Focusing on changes within one group instead of comparing different groups, which is what the study designs call for.
“…at present, the effect of [massage] on stress hormones is not a scientific fact on which theories can be built,” Moyer wrote.
How to do Swedish massage
Swedish massage consists of five basic techniques:
- Effleurage
- Petrissage
- Friction
- Tapotement
- Vibration
Effleurage involves long, sweeping and gliding strokes that are applied with the therapist’s hands and forearms, generally directed toward the heart.
In massage school, these are taught as the “greeting and goodbye” strokes that begin and end a session. They are intended to be soothing strokes that introduce the therapist’s touch to the client and end the session with a sense of calm completion.
Petrissage involves rhythmic, compressive strokes that are applied with deeper pressure to various areas of the body. This includes wringing, kneading, squeezing, and skin rolling applied with thumbs, finger pads, and palms.
Friction is applied with parallel, circular, or cross-fiber motions with the therapist’s thumb, fingertips, or with a massage tool. Palmar pressure can also be applied over larger areas of the body.
The intention of using friction techniques is to warm skin and muscles. Ffor some therapists, they are used to reach the deeper connective tissues of the body.
Tapotement is the rhythmic tapping applied to the body where the therapist uses the side their hands like a karate chop. Hand cupping and finger drumming may also be used.
Vibration techniques are applied as up-and-down movements to muscles and can also include shaking or jostling. Much like tapotement, vibration can be either stimulating or calming to the nervous system during a massage session based on the duration applied.
See video for a Swedish massage demo.
Swedish massage vs. deep tissue
Swedish and deep tissue massage are often offered in most massage practices, especially in franchises and spas. Some of the differences include:
- Swedish massage is often applied to large body areas with light to moderate press, while deep tissue massage often focuses on specific areas (e.g. lower back, upper thigh). Pressure is placed on one area for about 30 seconds, one minute, or more.
- In Swedish massage, therapists often use their hands, fingers, thumbs, knuckles, and sometimes forearms. In deep tissue, they often use their elbow and the meaty part of the forearm near the elbow.
Swedish massage precautions
Swedish massage is relatively safe for most people, but there are a few conditions that should be considered before receiving Swedish massage.
If you are sick with the cold or flu or anything contagious, or have a fever, massage should be postponed until you are well. Other illnesses and injuries should also be treated with caution, which is why a thorough intake is performed at the start of every session.
Massage can prove risky for those with deep vein thrombosis, as it is possible to dislodge a blood clot as shown in multiple case reports.
One case describes a 59-year-old man with a history of blood clots who received an aggressive back massage from his wife, leading to a renal embolism.
In another case, the deep calf massage of a pedicure resulted in a massive blood clot in the lungs.
Therapists can avoid areas that might be irritated by touch, such as a sunburn, skin condition, or areas of acute inflammation, while still being able to provide a safe, enjoyable session.
Even pregnant clients can receive Swedish massage with only a few modifications. Overall, most adverse massage effects come from other forms of massage, as detailed in a collection of case reports and studies.
In 16 case reports and four case series, serious adverse effects were associated with more aggressive massage techniques, including self-massage with tennis balls. When provided by a professional massage therapist, Swedish massage is a great option for the majority of the population.
There’s plenty of room for improvisation and customization, so one of the best ways to receive a good Swedish massage is to communicate with your massage therapist. As the session progresses, let them know what feels good and what doesn’t. When a therapist and a client are able to work together, their cooperation results in the best massage for every occasion.
Where does “Swedish” massage come from?
Pehr Henrik Ling. Artist: Johan Cardon (1802-1878)
According to historian Grégory Quinn, Swedish massage came from the works of Swedish physiologist Pehr Henrik Ling. In the early 1800s, Ling worked mostly with gymnasts and created a program that used both active and passive movements to improve physical performance. His personal experience with a painful injury that resolved after daily exercises was the inspiration for his work.
The exercises had a lot in common with calisthenics, focusing mostly on bodyweight exercises and movement that used full range of motion. He eventually worked with the Swedish government, founding the Royal Central Gymnastics Institute and becoming a prominent member of the medical community.
After Ling’s death in 1839, his teachings began to spread in Europe, starting with Germany and continued in England and France, according to Quinn. While many clinicians in Europe understood the value of exercise and massage therapy as part of the rehabilitation and patient care, massage and medical exercise were “often distrusted by physicians, whose interests lay more in building a dominant set of practices and
professions that could bring them profit, both economic and symbolic,” Quinn wrote.
“Despite the French criticism toward the Swedish method, the publication of Kinésithérapie ou Traitement des maladies par le movement in 1847 was contemporaneous with the introduction of gymnastics in hospitals in Paris under the supervision of Napoléon Laisné (1810–96), a gymnast and disciple of Colonel Amoros (1770–1848), who was the founder of a genuine French method of gymnastics,” Quinn wrote. It was clear that it is very clear that the Swedish method was “about gymnastics (active movements) and massage (passive movements)…”
Thus, the term “massaothérapie” was introduced by physician Georges Dujardin-Beaumetz to “anchor these practices in therapeutics and more generally in medicine,” Quinn wrote. He added that English physician William Murrell also used the term “massotherapeutics” in his publications to “root his practice in the medical field and to distance himself from certain questionable practices and colleagues.”
‘‘With massotherapeutics, [he] implies all the scientific aspects of massage, as a real therapeutics agent and not as an advertising asset for hotelkeepers in lack of customers,” Murrell wrote in his publication Massotherapeutics.
While Ling’s original program contained very little of manual therapy that we recognize today as Swedish massage, it was his student—Dutch physician Johan Georg Mezger—who named the five basic massage strokes.
Johann Georg Mezger. (Photo: Public Domain)
Although Ling never used Swedish massage, the practice was incorrectly attributed to him as writers of the time used Mezger’s French terms when writing about Ling’s Swedish Gymnastics System. It came to the U.S. in the mid-1800s as part of the Swedish Movement Cure, and the name stuck.
In Sweden and other parts of Europe, Swedish massage is simply referred to as “classic” massage, which is the massage techniques that are applied to a variety of settings, separating it from gymnastics.
Ling, Mezger and many of their contemporaries originally developed these systems to relieve sore muscles, increase flexibility, and improve overall health. American nurses started to incorporate touch into their treatments in the late 1800s. While massage therapy was taught as a basic nursing skill, there was a fallout of incorporating massage to patient care in hospitals by the 1940s.
According to registered nurse and certified massage therapist Paula T. Ruffin wrote that advances in science and technology “meant that the relief of suffering shifted from comfort measures toward an increased dependence on analgesics, and nurses were encouraged to develop
skills needed for disease specialization and disease monitoring.”
Nursing care carefully directed by Florence Nightingale transitioned from the practice of basic nursing comfort measures that incorporated gentle, soothing massage and became more scientifically based with pharmacologic interventions and complicated technologies used in patient care,” Ruffin continued. “It is interesting to recognize that physicians were able to make money from physical medicine whereas nursing did not generate an income from providing massage.”
Today, Swedish massage and other types of massage are mostly offered in spas and massage practices, separate from hospitals and medical clinics. However, some massage therapy is offered in hospitals, such as one in Cook Children’s Medical Center in Austin, Texas.
Swedish gymnastics at the Royal Gymnastics Central Institute in Stockholm, circa 1900. (Photo: Gymnastik- och idrottshögskolans bibliotek)
Chloe Bradley, LMT
Chloe Bradley is a writer and massage therapist currently located in Northern California. She earned her B.A. in Communications from the Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA, and continued her education at the National Holistic Institute of Massage Therapy in California.
Her career as a massage therapist has brought her to a variety of workplaces, from a small clinic in Texas to an upscale hotel in Wisconsin. Her pursuit of evidence-informed approaches to pain relief has led to a keen interest in the science of pain as well as the burgeoning field of narrative medicine. In her free time she can be found filling journals, dancing in her living room, and watching clouds go by.
Nick Ng is the editor of Massage & Fitness Magazine and the managing editor for My Neighborhood News Network.
An alumni from San Diego State University with a bachelor’s degree in graphic communications, Nick had completed his massage therapy training at International Professional School of Bodywork in San Diego in 2014. In 2021, he earned an associate’s degree in journalism at Palomar College.
When he gets a chance, he enjoys weightlifting at the gym, salsa dancing, and exploring new areas in the Puget Sound area in Washington state.
