Page 23 - Martial Science Magazine February 2018 dig

tial arts skills. Frequent walking barefoot, formed by pressing certain foot areas
as well as striking leg kicks, with raising with fingers (shi-fingers, atzu-press).
or bending the toes, as well as balancing
on one foot (lifting the body on tiptoe) Ayurvedic massage has come from India
such as for instance in some judo throws as well as a special padabhyanga foot

(or in sumo, ju-jutsu, too)- all of them massage, while the American scientist
strengthen the foot. Fitzgerald called his method of foot mas-
sage therapy - reflexology.
ANCIENT TECHNIQUES FOR TREATING
VARIOUS HEALTH ISSUES WITH FOOT Obviously, the ancient doctors knew
MASSAGE about the usefulness of well-developed
foot muscles as well as the importance of
The first information on foot massage as a proper foot appearance. It was known
well as the treatment of certain health to them that the foot consists of 26 small-
problems by pressure on certain areas on er bones connected with 33 joints, and
the foot were found in Asia (China, India) a multitude of muscles, ligaments and

and date up to 3000 years BC. Ancient tendons that join them together. On the
peoples like the Egyptians, Persians, feet there are also about seven thousand
Asirians, as well as the ancient Greeks nerve endings associated with all parts of
and Romans, knew various foot massage the body.
techniques. There is a well-known note on
foot massage from the pharaonic doctor All of the above facts were known by an-
Ankhamor from the 2330 BC. Foot mas- cient masters of various martial arts who
sage was also described by the legendary were well acquainted with the man’s anat-
Greek physician Hippocrates (460-377 omy as well as treatment methods, but

BC), as well as the famous Arabic phy- also various kinds of massage, as well as
sician and philosopher Avicenna (979- the massage by pressure on certain parts
1037). Not long ago there was a US sci- of the foot. Chinese martial arts special-
entist called William H. Fitzgerald (1872 ists agree that knowledge of massage and
- 1942), who studied ancient methods of the skill of its use in China, is as old as
treatment by certain pressure and foot Chinese martial arts. The importance of
massage, used by American Indians in massage on certain parts of the foot is so
both North and South America. Interest- significant that there is a central point
ingly enough, almost the same methods on the foot, considered to be the key to
of massage as well as pressure treatment recovery after effort, in China known as
were used in old China, India,Thailand, in - Yong quan, in Japan known as - KI (inner

old Japan, too. energy). It is certain that the old masters
of martial arts knew a lot about the hu-
The Japanese have the popular shiatsu man body as well as about the importance
(shiatzu) massage - foot massage per- of strengthening the foot muscles.

FEBRUARY/2018 23