Animal Massage: Both pets and performance animals experience soft-tissue damage in their daily lives just as humans do. Therapeutic massage provides significant relief, stimulates healing, and promotes stress reduction and relaxation. Other benefits include enhancing performance by increasing range of motion, maintaining muscle tone and joint flexibility, increasing blood and lymph circulation, increasing oxygen to reduce muscle spasms, flushing toxins from muscles and joints, improving disposition, preventing injuries, stimulating areas affected postoperatively, recovering from skeletal and muscular surgery or injury, relieving muscle pain by releasing endorphins, and relieving discomfort from arthritis, lameness, and hip dysplasia. Animals also can receive pre- and post-event massage for competition. See equine massage.

 

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Animal Massage: Both pets and performance animals experience soft-tissue damage in their daily lives just as humans do. Therapeutic massage provides significant relief, stimulates healing, and promotes stre . . . View Full Definition

Equine Massage: The practice of soft-tissue manipulation applied to horses. See animal massage.

Massage Therapy: Massage or massage therapy are systems of structured palpation or movement of the soft tissue of the body. The massage system may include, but is not limited to, such techniques as, stroking . . . View Full Definition

Massage Therapist: A person who practices therapeutic massage. In many US states, massage therapists can be licensed after completing a specified training program. Licensed therapists may practice independentl . . . View Full Definition