One person giving another person a shoulder massage.
The holidays are almost here, and SIMED Massage Therapist Eze Guillermo in Gainesville wants you to be able to give the perfect gift to your friends, family, and loved ones. 
In the videos below, he goes over how to give a perfect back, neck, and shoulder massage. The massages will help relieve stress and neck pain that can build up during heavy computer use and other activities.
Below, we review step-by-step how to give a good neck massage. Enjoy!

Before You Begin the Neck Massage

Before starting the massage, make sure your friend or loved one is lying down face up on a bed, couch, or comfortable spot on the floor. Make sure their arms are up against the sides of their body. 
Place one of your hands gently under your friend’s neck as support.

Neck Massage

1. Start by doing a stroke along the base of your friend or loved one’s neck down towards the person’s back with your fingertips. Make sure your fingers push down enough to stretch the levator scapulae muscle.
2. If you feel any tense tissue or muscle, stop moving your hand along the path and leave your fingers pressed into the tense area to relieve the stress.
3. While working the muscle or shoulder point, you can gently squeeze the back of the neck to relieve tension with your other hand.
4. Once you have worked out the kink in the muscle, you can continue down the path towards the back of the neck.
5. Lightly pinch and pull with the base of your thumb the traps or the muscle at the base of your neck at the back of your body next to your shoulder. Squeeze deeper into the base of the neck and slowly pull outwards along the muscle.
6. Switch to pressing your knuckles gently into traps (muscles on the top of your back at the base of your neck). Press into the muscle with your knuckle and slowly turn your muscle a few degrees clockwise and repeat.
7. Next, find the bone behind the person’s ear. Slide your fingers off the bone, down towards the tissue below it.
8. With one or two fingertips, begin to glide down the side of the neck towards the base.
9. Don’t forget to ask your friend or loved one how the pressure feels against their neck. Always make sure to check in with the person you are massaging to ensure they feel okay. 
10. Follow the stroke down the neck to the squishy cave at the base of the neck. Then follow along the cave at the base of neck around the back of the neck.
11. Slide your fingers up and down the muscles on the side of the neck.
12. Finish by curling your fingers a small amount and gliding them along up from the base of the neck towards the back of the head. You’ll eventually hit a stop at a part of the skull called the sub-occipital ridge. Lightly pull the head away from the body to stretch and separate the muscles and bones. 
13. Glide your hands slowly away from the person’s neck.
14. That completes your message!
Your friend should be feeling great and grateful after you’ve finished your massage. If reading the instruction wasn’t enough, you can also watch the video below that illustrates how to give a neck massage. Then, watch the video on how to do a proper back and shoulder massage. 

Watch the video on how to do a neck massage:

Watch the video on how to do a back and shoulder massage:

To learn more about SIMED Massage Therapy in Gainesville, call 352-373-6565 or schedule an appointment online
SIMED offers Physical Therapy in Gainesville, Ocala, Chiefland, and Lady Lake. 
Gainesville: (352) 373-6565
Chiefland: (352) 493-2122
Lady Lake (The Villages): (352) 259-0842
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