When should the Petrissage massage be used?

Petrissage a stroke that is like kneading, as in kneading bread. It does several things, among them is increasing local circulation and increasing elastation of local tissues. This helps to warm the tissues and helps them relax.

Some massage therapists may tell you that it loosens the tissue to go deeper and make change, but that is not accurate, nor the correct way of saying it. While it is true that when the tissues are more relaxed that it is easier to do deeper massage techniques, massage therapists are not capable of "making change" in the body. Massage may encourage or fascilitate change, but unless you make an incision in the skin and stick your hands in there, nobody can make direct change in the body. It may sound like a gorey illustration, but it is an accurate one.