Cellulite massage: does it work? All you need to know, including how to perform a real cellulite massage.

“TL;DR: Although not as effective as deep-acting, high-power radiofrequency or deep-acting, high-power ultrasound, a good, strong cellulite massage that acts on the hypodermis can make a difference with cellulite. Learn here the principles of a good anti-cellulite massage.

Pressotherapy is conditionally helpful, while palper-rouler vacuum suction massage and vibration massage are problematic. Lighter or more superficial massages (such as manual lymphatic drainage) and deeper-acting massages (such as the ridiculous “fascia blasting” and deep tissue massage), are ineffective, while things like coffee scrubbing and dry brushing are utterly pointless, so don’t mess your bathroom and don’t waste your time scratching your epidermis.”

Massage for cellulite: facts, hype and the right technique

• Anti-cellulite massage: does it work? Does massage help cellulite?

• Each therapist has his/her own cellulite massage technique

• Which tissues should a good cellulite massage target?

• What anti-cellulite massage can offer and what it can’t

• Deep tissue massage for cellulite: muscles are not cellulite, so why have it?

• Swedish massage for cellulite: too fluffy to do anything

• Thai massage for cellulite: totally irrelevant

• MLD / Manual lymphatic drainage massage for cellulite: the hype is not justified

• Dry body brushing massage for cellulite: doesn’t make any sense

• Real anti-cellulite massage: strong, cellulite-specific massage that acts on the hypodermis

• How to perform a real cellulite massage

• More advice for a proper anti-cellulite massage

• Cellulite self-massage at home

• Do cellulite massagers work? Nah…

• Vacuum suction cellulite massage with rollers (or without): it sucks…

• Cupping massage for cellulite: low-tech suction doesn’t help either

• "Fascia" cellulite massage: what a crude joke…

• Aromatherapy massage for cellulite: tricky and usually pointless

• Vibration massage for cellulite: causes spider veins

• Pressotherapy massage for cellulite: helps a bit

• Ultrasound “cellulite massage”: not a massage as such, but one of the best cellulite reduction methods

• Radiofrequency “cellulite massage”: not a massage as such, but the best cellulite reduction / skin tightening method known today

• Have a skin tightening / cellulite treatment in London with the experts

• Advanced, infrared / red light therapy treatments in London at LipoTherapeia

• Discover our professional training in cellulite, skin tightening, radiofrequency and ultrasound

Anti-cellulite massage: does it work? Does massage help cellulite?

There are many different types of massage proposed as “cellulite massages”, including:

• manual lymphatic drainage massage

• deep tissue massage

• dry body brushing

• "fascia blasting" cellulite massage (what a joke…)

• home cellulite massagers

• cupping massage

• vacuum suction massage (i.e. mechanical palper-rouler massage)

• aromatherapy massage

• swedish massage

• thai massage

• dry brushing massage (what a waste of time…)

• home self-massage

• vibration massage

• real, cellulite-specific massage, that acts on the hypodermis (the “cellulite layer”)

• pressotherapy massage

• radiofrequency cellulite “massage”

• ultrasound cellulite “massage”

…and probably some other, lesser known techniques, which I may have failed to mention here.

But do cellulite massages work? And of those that do work, which are the most efficient?

On this post I will present what cellulite massage can and cannot offer, with analysis of each individual cellulite massage technique mentioned above.

Honest, no-nonsense advice based on more than two decades of practical experience and constant research on cellulite treatments, rather than the usual cellulite myths and marketing hype you find on the internet.

Each therapist has his/her own cellulite massage technique

First things first: let’s make it all clear from the beginning, that regardless of the merits of each massage technique as a whole, individual therapist technique is very important.

In fact, one can say that there are as many types of anti-cellulite massage as there are therapists. This is due to the variability of individual massage technique between therapists, according to:

• Different teaching standards between training schools around the world and even in the same country

• Knowledge of cellulite anatomy/physiology

• Experience

• Individual methods, developed over the years by each therapist

Even supposedly standardised, machine-based treatments (e.g. LPG, Velashape etc) are not offered in the same way everywhere in the world, as each therapist adapts their treatment according to what the clients want and what they - rightly or wrongly - believe is the best for their clients.

This means that a slightly inferior massage technique, when offered by a talented therapist can be better than a slightly superior one.

But under no circumstances can a far inferior technique (e.g. the ridiculous dry brushing) can ever be better than a much focused and vigorous technique (e.g. cellulite-specific massage), no matter how talented or not the therapist is.

So after clearing this up, let’s see what cellulite massage should aim for, before analysing each individual technique (all massage techniques are presented in no particular order).

Which tissues should a good anti-cellulite massage target?

Different massages act on different parts of the skin and with varying effectiveness.

The skin is made up for three main layers:

• Epidermis (more superficial)

• Dermis

• Hypodermis (deeper)

As we go deeper still, we encounter:

• A layer of connective tissue called “superficial fascia”, below which lies…

• A layer of subcutaneous adipose tissue (also called “superficial fat” or what people simply call “fat”. This, depending on fat accumulation, can be anything from very, very thin in slim people to very, very thick in obese people.

• Further below the subcutaneous adipose tissue lies the deep fascia

• And even further below we have muscle groups or individual muscles, also enclosed in their own fascia

Now, cellulite massage should squarely aim at the hypodermis, which is where cellulite is located.

Working on the superficial fascia also makes some sense, especially when we work with radiofrequency, but not so much when we work with manual massage.

Going deeper, i.e. working on subcutaneous fat also makes some sense, as that tissue also needs some circulation enhancement to stay healthy. However, this is not cellulite per se and by working a lot on it with massage we will NOT reduce its volume or make it firmer.

So a subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) massage is more for overall adipose tissue health, rather than for aesthetics. Nice but not essential.

So working on the SAT with a “fascia blasting” massage tool, as some ignorant people advocate, is totally irrelevant to cellulite. The subcutaneous adipose tissue is NOT cellulite and “blasting” it with a crude tool will not make it smaller neither will it break the skin ligaments that are part of the cellulite problem.

It is just too deep and it is as pointless and irrelevant as working on the epidermis, where dry brushing works, for example.

For cellulite reduction purposes fascia blasting and dry brushing both are a waste of time - one for being too deep and the other for being to superficial.

Needless to say, working deeper still, on the muscles is totally pointless for our purposes.

What cellulite massage can offer and what it can’t

Many types of massage can indeed boost circulation and lymphatic drainage and consequently partially help prevent and reduce low-grade inflammation.

A real, strong, cellulite-focused massage can additionally:

• help prevent some fat accumulation too

• help break down some fibrosis

• help boost skin firmness, to some extent

But no cellulite massage can really reduce cellulite fat, neither can it boost skin firmness a lot nor break down fibrosis fast.

So massage has its limitations, especially in comparison to technology-based treatments, such as deep-acting, high-power radiofrequency or high-power ultrasound cavitation, which are much more effective.

But for those who do not have access to such treatments, who do no want to pay the higher cost or who simply do not like technology-based treatments, a good cellulite massage can play an important role in cellulite prevention and reduction.

Deep tissue massage for cellulite: muscles are not cellulite, so why have it?

And since we mentioned working on muscles and deep fascia, let’s talk about deep tissue massage first. Deep tissue massage, also known as remedial massage or sports massage, works on muscles and deep fascia. These are the tissues where all the techniques used for deep tissue massage aim to affect, in order to restore balance on the musculoskeletal system.

Because deep tissue massage is supposed to be a stronger type of massage, as opposed to the fluffy swedish / relaxation massage variety, people think that it can help cellulite too - at least more than swedish massage.

Even though by working with a lot of pressure on muscles does somewhat affect the hypodermis, it is still not specific enough to offer any good results with cellulite, as deep tissue massage largely bypasses the hypodermis.

Clearly, deep tissue massage is not an effective cellulite technique. Great for the muscles and overall circulation/lymphatic drainage, pointless for cellulite.

Swedish massage for cellulite: too fluffy to do anything

Swedish massage is just too light to have even a half-decent effect on cellulite.

Swedish massage is:

• great for mental relaxation for some people (and highly irritating for people who like deeper massage)

• kinda helpful for muscular relaxation (kinda)

• decently helpful for circulation improvement

• but really pointless for cellulite

Clearly a much more vigorous and specific treatment is needed.

Thai massage for cellulite: totally irrelevant

Thai massage is based on point pressures and stretching.

The point pressures are just too “pointy” to affect the entire cellulite surface. Also they are not specific to the hypodermis either.

The stretches are nice for the muscles but wouldn’t do anything for cellulite.

And both point pressures and stretches would boost circulation to a small extent, but not to a large extent, and neither in any specific way to affect cellulite.

So, all in all, Thai massage may be an overall nice type of bodywork/massage for mental and muscular relaxation, but has nothing to do with cellulite removal.

MLD / Manual lymphatic drainage massage for cellulite: the hype is not justified

Lymphatic drainage massage is the elephant in the room when it comes to cellulite massages. Mention cellulite massage and everyone thinks oooh, ‘lymphatic massage’.

But is all the hype justified?

Three-four decades ago in continental Europe, and a couple of decades years ago here in the UK, the only game in town when it came to cellulite massage was lymphatic massage, partly:

• Because people believed that “cellulite is all toxins and water retention, you know”

• Due to the unjustified cure-all, legendary status manual lymphatic drainage (MLD) has attained among manual therapists

• Partly because to some extent it does help cellulite - the keyphrase here being “to some extent”

Manual lymph massage does help boost circulation and lymphatic drainage in people with lymphoedema (clinical water retention) better than any other technique, simply because these people need that special type of massage.

But for the vast majority of the population who do not have clinical problems with water retention (95%+ of the population), the circulation boosting / lymphatic drainage that MLD offers can also be offered equally effectively even by the most rudimentary massage, including swedish and deep tissue.

It can also be achieved with mechanical massage, such as pressotherapy. And it can even be achieved by supplements, compression garments, exercise and healthy eating.

In summary, any massage which involves a lot of upwards strokes can help boost circulation and lymphatic drainage. In fact, if you alternate upward strokes with kneading you already have a much better circulation massage than MLD for the vast majority of the population, i.e. for all the non-clinical cases.

So, all in all, can manual lymph drainage massage help cellulite? Yes, very partially and very temporarily. But other massage techniques can do an equal or even better job.

So the hype is not justified.

Dry body brushing massage for cellulite: doesn’t make any sense

Since body brushing is a huge thing when it comes to cellulite, it deserved its own page on this website. As a myth, not as an effective cellulite reduction method.

You can read more here, but on this post suffice it to say that dry brushing affects mainly the epidermis, a little bit the dermis and not at all the hypodermis, where cellulite “lives”.

• To affect the hypodermis you need to body brush with a lot of pressure, which will scratch your skin to the point of bleeding

• To avoid this you will need to apply some oil, in which case the brush will become too soft and it won’t be “dry brushing” anymore. Then you need to press more, in which case you effectively massage the skin indirectly with the wooden back of brush.

• If to avoid this you remove the brush and use your hands with the oil, there is no brushing left - you have a normal hand massage, not requiring a brush

• Yes, normal hand massage is way better than the stupid dry brushing massage

All in all, dry body brushing is pointless for cellulite reduction. The little effect it has on blood circulation and lymphatic drainage, can be attained much better by simply using your lovely hands with some oil.

In fact, by using your hands you can boost circulation way more than with dry brushing. If you do so, you are left with a pointless brush which is not even good enough to clean your shoes.

Oh well…

Real cellulite massage: strong, cellulite-specific massage that acts on the hypodermis

Ok, enough with the too deep (deep tissue), too superficial (dry brushing), too weak (lymphatic massage) or totally pointless (swedish, thai) cellulite massage bashing.

Let’s move now onto something more effective and more useful: strong, cellulite-specific massage. What do I mean by that?

As the name suggests, I mean a STRONG massage (that’s a prerequisite) that works specifically on the HYPODERMIS (where cellulite is found). Neither more superficially, nor more deeply.

How to perform a real cellulite massage

And how do we achieve that? There are three main massage “moves” that act on that layer, (plus on the dermis and subcutaneous fat - nice extras!):

• Strong skin rolling (manual palper-rouler)

• Strong skin kneading

These are the massage moves you can do by hand that will affect hypodermis/cellulite, more than any other tissue.

Plus we need to perform some drainage which is simply achieved by:

• Strong long strokes

Apply those moves in some logical way and with strong pressure for anything between 30-60 minutes on the lower legs, thighs, hips and buttocks and you have a cellulite-specific massage.

It is very tiring and probably not good in the long run for the therapist’s fingers, but it’s the best cellulite massage you can give/receive:

• Always start an area with firm long strokes

• Then continue with firm skin rolling and firm skin kneading

• And then always finish with firm strokes again

Simple!

More advice for a proper cellulite massage

I will not analyse all the details of “what, why and how” here, but I have a few points to make:

• Use some oil - not too little, not too much. Too much oil will not allow you to grab the skin and manipulate it. Too little will mean you start rubbing the skin surface rather than the hypodermis. You may also use a suitable cream with similar ‘slip’ properties.

• In deep tissue massage we use muscle kneading (petrissage). In cellulite massage we use skin kneading. Grab the skin and knead it with the same technique, which is quite similar to making dough.

• Skin rolling / manual palper-rouler (grab and roll) is similar to skin kneading, but as the name suggests involves rolling the skin with the fingers

• Stroking is the usual effleurage technique in normal massage, but applied more firmly and with not much oil

Don’t do it too hard (you will injure the skin unnecessarily) and don’t do it too lightly (light cellulite massage is a waste of time).

If instead of plain oil you use a highly concentrated cellulite cream or oil, you will add another benefit to the massage. The problem with most of those products, though, is that they simply do not contain enough actives to make any real difference.

Combine with healthy living (plenty of advice here) and you have a nice cellulite reduction program. Not nearly as effective as deep-acting, high-power radiofrequency and deep-acting, high-power ultrasound cavitation, the gold standards for cellulite reduction, but still quite good. And if you do it to yourself, it doesn’t cost a penny.

And above all, cellulite massage is great for cellulite prevention and keeping the skin on your legs and buttocks healthy in general.

Cellulite self-massage at home

If you follow the guidelines above you can apply a pretty good cellulite massage on your legs.

There are two problems though:

• Stamina and boredom: most people cannot apply a strong massage for the required 20 minutes on the front of thighs and another 40 minutes on the back of thighs and buttocks

• Toe be honest, it is quite impossible to massage the back of your thighs and buttocks, where most cellulite is usually located, for more than 5 minutes

If you have the necessary stamina, patience and organisation to massage the front, outer and inner thighs for anything between 20-30 minutes three times a week (always leave a day off in-between massages) you should have a nice result, if you combine the massage with strict healthy eating and vigorous exercise (if possible).

As for the back of thighs and buttocks, good luck…

Hence the need for professional cellulite massage.

Do cellulite massagers work? nah…

How about using a cellulite massager instead?

Nothing can replace the human hands in terms of cellulite massage precision and effectiveness. Even the professional massage machines used at salons are just no match to the hands. Plus, most of them cause problems, such as thread veins and skin looseness caused by vibration machines or suction machines.

With this in mind, don’t expect to get any real benefit from home cellulite massagers. They are too weak, and even if they were stronger they would still not be good enough or they would cause problems.

Keep your money and massage your legs yourself instead - or just have a course of professional treatments (massage or other) at a salon / clinic.

Vacuum suction cellulite massage with rollers (or without): it sucks…

In theory vacuum massage with rollers sounds like a great idea: you lift the skin, create a skinfold and perform skin rolling massage without damaging your fingers.

Even vacuum massage minus the rollers (e.g. cupping) will also raise the skin, create a (cruder) skinfold and then perform a (cruder) skin rolling.

Great, what could possibly go wrong, right?

Oh well. Creating spider veins (thread veins) and loosening the skin can go wrong.

Let me explain:

• When a therapist performs skin rolling they precisely lift the skin with their fingers and squeeze the tissue. When a vacuum machine performs skin rolling it sucks up the skin and the suction excessively dilates the blood vessels, gradually causing some of them to break. This leads to thread veins.

• Furthermore, pulling the skin with suction, stretches it and causes skin looseness. This is especially true when high suction is used to provide “faster results”.

And all this is not just theory, it is feedback from dozens of clients over the years who had vacuum-based palper-rouler massages, with the vast majority of them complaining about skin looseness, and spider veins - and not much results with cellulite either.

In theory, vacuum-suction based cellulite massage sounds good, in practice it sucks - excuse the pun.

Cupping massage for cellulite: low-tech suction doesn’t help either

Cupping cellulite massage is basically a form of vacuum cellulite massage, but very low-tech.

Instead of a pump sucking air out of the cup, as with electrical machines, a flame is lit inside the glass vacuum cup, it creates a temporary vacuum, the cup is quickly attached to the skin and then a palper-rouler massage is performed with the suction.

Some therapists use a plastic vacuum cup, squeeze the air out by pressing the cup and then perform the vacuum massage.

Cupping massage has the same problems as mechanical vacuum based massages: ineffectiveness, thread veins and skin looseness. It is just low tech and cheaper but equally ineffective.

"Fascia" cellulite massage: what a crude joke…

We mentioned “crude” above and crude cellulite massages don’t come worse than the ridiculously named “fascia cellulite massages” performed with special “fascia blasting” tools.

Why ridiculous? Because the people who promote them do not even have a clue what fascia is, what it does, where the different fasciae are located and which fasciae or other tissues their massage tool works. They think it’s all the same (“cellulite is fascia”) and have everything confused.

In summary, those tools affect mainly the subcutaneous tissue, which is irrelevant to cellulite. Yes, with those tools you do specifically massage your “fat” (subcutaneous adipose tissue), but that is NOT what cellulite is (hypodermal adipose tissue).

And why crude? Because the idea is to give yourself as painful a massage as possible in order to break down the “bad fascia” that has accumulated in your cellulite. That’s really crude, especially when you affect the wrong layer. And also smacks of ignorance on so many different levels.

Yes, the cellulite layer will be affected somewhat and yes some circulation will be boosted, as with all massages. But there are better, non-crude techniques out there to affect specifically the cellulite layer. And without having DEEP bruises all over your thighs, as if you have hit all the table corners in your house.

Needless to say, this ridiculous massage has nothing to do with the valuable, well-researched, well-practised-for-decades fascia massages that manual therapists (osteopaths, sports therapists, chiropractors and physiotherapists) offer for musculoskeletal problems.

No comparison.

Aromatherapy massage for cellulite: tricky and usually pointless

Aromatherapy massage sounds like a good idea for cellulite reduction - if it is performed strongly, as opposed to the usual fluffy aromatherapy massages.

A lot of essential oils do have some beneficial effect on several aspects of cellulite, such as water retention, low-grade inflammation, fibrosis and fat reduction.

However, for those results to occur, high concentrations of essential oils are needed, which means sensitivity reactions to both the receiver - and especially therapist - after a few months.

A low concentration of essential oils would not do much and a high concentration would cause sensitisation reactions.

As a result, aromatherapy massage is not a great option for cellulite reduction.

Vibration massage for cellulite: causes spider veins

We talked above about ideas which sound good on paper and do not work in practice, and vibration massage is one of those.

Vibration massage does boost circulation, can help break down fibrosis and does boost skin firmness, so it sounds ideal for cellulite reduction, right? Wrong.

However, vibration massage cannot help reduce fat and secondly, and most importantly, it causes thread/spider veins - the higher the intensity, the more the spider veins.

No-one wants to replace one problem with another, especially when the one problem (cellulite) is not reduced that effectively, anyway.

For this reason, vibration massage is not a good idea.

Pressotherapy massage for cellulite: helps a bit

Pressotherapy or alternate compression massage therapy is based on compression applied on-and-off rhythmically for a period of 20-40 minutes on the legs and, sometimes, stomach and arms.

The better machines also maintain a continuous pressure gradient, so the end result is like having a firm lymphatic massage whilst at the same time wearing graduated pressure compression tights. Not bad.

Pressotherapy offers an effective lymph drainage and circulation boosting massage, as good as or better than MLD or any other massage.

But pressotherapy cannot boost skin firmness, break down fibrosis or reduce cellulite fat.

All in all, a course of good pressotherapy treatments can offer some help with cellulite reduction, but not as good as a cellulite-specific massage, deep tissue radiofrequency or high power ultrasound cavitation.

But it is great to relax tired, heavy legs and reduce water retention. And will help prevent cellulite too.

There are cheap pressotherapy machines to use at home. These are not nearly as good as some very expensive professional ones, but they still help, simply because you can use them every day.

Ultrasound “cellulite massage”: not a massage as such, but one of the best cellulite reduction methods

Ultrasound cavitation treatments for cellulite are sometimes referred to as “ultrasound massages”, and not without reason.

Ultrasound offers a local “micro-massage” in the tissues it is applied to, thanks to its alternated pressure waves that hit the tissues treated.

There are many types of ultrasonic cavitation treatments and most of them don’t work that well, usually due to low power - especially the home-use devices, which don’t work AT ALL.

However, high-power ultrasound cavitation is proven to help break down both cellulite fat tissue and fibrosis and boost circulation and therefore is one of the two best methods of cellulite reduction.

Some further effleurage massage or pressotherapy can be applied after ultrasound cavitation treatment to further boost circulation, but it is not absolutely necessary.

Radiofrequency “cellulite massage”: not a massage as such, but the best cellulite reduction / skin tightening method known today

Similar to ultrasound, sometimes radio frequency cellulite treatments are referred to as “radiofrequency massages”. Again not without reason.

As radiofrequency significantly boosts circulation where it is applied and as some firm pressure is used to apply the treatment, the term “radiofrequency massage” does deserve its use.

Similar to ultrasound treatments, there are many types of radiofrequency and most of them don’t work very well - and I am even not talking here about the home-use devices, which obviously don’t work AT ALL.

But those that do work, i.e. the deep-acting, high-power radio frequency treatments, represent one of the two most effective treatments for cellulite reduction, as they act on fat, circulation and especially skin looseness (on which no other technique or technology does).

Some further effleurage massage or pressotherapy can be applied after radio frequency treatment to further boost circulation. However, as radiofrequency itself boosts circulation a lot, further massage afterwards is not essential. It is a nice touch, though.

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