When you have spent all day on your feet, few things feel better than a foot massage which will help to relieve the tension and ease the pressure placed on them. At the same time the feet are actually very important for health in the rest of your body. Knowing where to find the pressure points is a great way to increase the effectiveness of a foot massage, both in terms of how good it feels, and in terms of how much good it does for your health.
A pressure point is an area where the nerves are more exposed and thus pressure can create more deeply felt sensations. These areas usually are where there are gaps in the bone and muscle to allow you to press down further and to be felt through the skin and flesh. In the foot then the pressure points should come fairly naturally – they are the areas where you are able to press more deeply and can feel the pads on the ends of your fingers pressing into gaps and dips. These exist for example just bellow the ball of the foot where there is a soft patch, and at the sides of the foot. Lightly squeezing either side of the Achilles tendon can also bring about a pleasant sensation.
Practitioners of reflexology however also believe that a foot massage can affect other areas of our health and that specific pressure points can have specific desirable effects. For example it is thought that squeezing the toes can help to relieve a headache. Similarly pressing the pressure point described just bellow the ball of the foot is said to relieve stomach pains, and area just below the little toe is supposed to help relieve neck and shoulder pain.
For those interested in a using pressure points in the foot, none other than Jackie Chan has released a line of socks with the pressure point areas marked on them to enable you to correctly locate the correct spots quickly.