~About Hot Stone Massage~
Therapeutic stones have an amazing healing energy and have been used for massage therapy around the world for hundreds of years.Hot Stone Massage is one of the fastest growing massage techniques in today's spas throughout this country and across international waters. This form of bodywork involves the use of heated stones applied to the body in various ways to bring about relief to stiff and sore muscles, resulting in alleviation of chronic and acute problems that many of us deal with on a daily basis.
The type of basalt (for hot stones) that is used in hot stone therapy is modified igneous rock that is formed by volcanic and sedimentary action. Basalt is the most abundant of the volcanic rocks, especially plentiful in those regions that have undergone volcanic disturbance within geologically recent times. Most present-day volcanoes erupt basaltic material. This black to sometimes greenish stone is very dense and forms fine crystalline masses. The black basalt stones stay hotter longer than any of the other colors Mother Earth has to offer. The density of the stones is 2.5 times the weight per volume of water. The hardness is 7 on the Mohs' Scale of 1-10, a diamond being a ten. The basalt that I use has been eroded by steam or water activity. The stones then washed along a river bottom and were given their smooth potato-like shape and size.
This therapy is very effective in creating harmony and a positive energy flow thus promoting a sense of balance energy and peace.