The Effectiveness and Importance of Leg-Foot Massage
Satoshi Sasada*
Department of Occupational Therapy, Kanagawa University of Human Services, Japan
Submission: March 14, 2017; Published: April 27, 2017
*Corresponding author: Satoshi Sasada, School of Rehabilitation,Department of Occupational Therapy, Kanagawa University of Human Services,Kanagawa,Yokosuka,Japan, Email: sasada@kuhs.ac.jp
How to cite this article: Satoshi S.The Effectiveness and Importance of Leg-Foot Massage. J Yoga & Physio. 2017; 1(3) : 555563. DOI:10.19080/JYP.2017.01.555563
Opinion
Humans often unconsciously rub the left and right hands together at the center of the body and massage the left and right feet. The development of the foot is observed in the baby’s movement. The baby develops the soles of both legs in 6 months. Thus, massage of the foot seems a human instinct.We focused on the gesture of people rubbing their feet and developed a method of foot-leg exercise. We examined the effect of foot-leg exercise, which consists of three methods, namely parallel, cross, and sandwich. Details of the methods are as follows:
Parallel
The subject sits straight on a chair and moves the sole (arch of the foot) up and down for approximately 15cm along the inside lower part of the other leg (Figure 1).
Cross
The subject sits straight on a chair and moves the sole (arch of the foot) up and down for approximately 15cm along the inside lower part of the other leg 15cm (Figure 2).
Sandwich
The subject bends the neck slightly to see the lower limbs and loosen up the upper limbs. Achilles’s tendon of the other leg is fastened by using the big and second toes, moving up and down 5cm from the heel (Figure 3). When doing the sandwich exercise, the fingers are stretched to spread the thumb and second fingers (Figure 4). At the same time, Achilles’s tendon is massaged.The subjects were menopausal women with foot pain and poor circulation.After three exercises, the subjects reported a positive change in their moods [1]. Not only their physical symptoms but also their mental states were improved by the exercise [2-4]. These results indicate that our method of foot-leg massage has a positive effect.
Furthermore, our results demonstrate that this gymnastic exercise is also effective for children with developmental disorders. A therapist visited an elementary school and applied foot-leg exercise to students in a physical education class [5,6]. The students considered the foot-leg exercise as easy to perform and not burdensome to the legs. From the viewpoint of risk management, the exercise was safe and, despite the easy movement, was effective for maintaining the personal health of the elementary school students in a special-needs class [7]. As a result, the studentscould now wash their toes and wear socks on their own. The foot-leg exercises have much in common with the contact points in yoga. I think that a new therapy combined with yoga is possible. We would like to examine the approach in the future.
References
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