Cellulite-specific massage...

...is an effective cellulite treatment that can provide all the benefits of the more expensive hi-tech or intrusive treatments but at a fraction of the cost and in a natural manner, explains Cellulite Guru Georgios Tzenichristos.

No cellulite treatment is worth £400 a pop. In fact no cellulite treatment today is worth more than £120 per hour.

Cellulite is a condition that affects about 90% of the adult female population today, due to unhealthy eating practices, sedentary lifestyles, alcohol and cigarette consumption and the widespread use of the contraceptive pill. For this reason cellulite treatments comprise a large part of women’s beauty routine, with literally hundreds of them available today worldwide. Some of these treatments are effective but most are not; a few are natural, yet many are intrusive and uncomfortable; and some treatments are moderately priced whilst many are extortionately expensive, with the unreasonable cost justified by exaggerated promises of radical, one-off “lunchtime” solutions and advertising hype.

In fact, the last few years, the years characterized by an unprecedented worldwide economic boom, the trend was towards more and more expensive and hi-tech or intrusive approaches, that became very fashionable regardless of effectiveness and due to the increasing popularity of the “plastic surgery mentality” and lots of easily available credit. More and more women have been brainwashed to believe that all that was needed to remove the unsightly lumps and bumps was a lot of money and a radical, lunchtime solution that involves surgery, injections or gimmicks such as lasers and similar devices. However, much to the disappointment of many women who believed that they can firm, slim and smoothen up their legs just by throwing money at a Harley Street clinic, this kind of solution does not yet exist today.

Unfortunately, cellulite is not one of those things that can be surgically removed, injected to death or eliminated in one go with a fancy piece of machinery - at least not with today’s knowledge and technology. This is because cellulite is an integral part of the skin structure and as such can not be surgically or otherwise removed from the body, as the skin itself cannot obviously be removed. Neither cellulite can be reduced in one session, as this would permanently damage the skin. Instead, for visible, long-term results several treatments are needed, spread over a period of time.

The fact of the matter is that, unbeknownst to most women, all of the unreasonably expensive solutions mentioned above require at least 12 sessions to provide the results they promise - and only if they are combined with diet and exercise. Some treatment providers are aware of these facts and do suggest a course of 12 or more treatments, but many unwittingly promise that only 1-2 sessions is all that is needed for celulite removal, which of course is physiologically impossible. At a cost of £200 to £450 per session, such a course of treatments can cost anything between £2,000 to £5,000 (including volume discounts), which in today’s economic climate becomes prohibitively expensive for most women, even the most affluent ones.

So the problem with all these cellulite treatments is not that they don’t reduce cellulite, most of them do (except liposuction and smart lipo, which have nothing to do with cellulite). The problem is that they are too expensive for what they offer, i.e. they are not cost-effective. Simply put, no cellulite treatment today is worth £400 per session. In fact, no cellulite treatment is worth anything more than £120/hour, no matter how advanced it is presented to be. This of course has always been the case - it’s just that the credit crunch made this realization all the more clearer.

Cellulite massage: traditionally practised over decades worldwide, now improved thanks to latest scientific discoveries

While considering all the technological solutions to the problem of cellulite it is easy to forget that a cost-effective cellulite reduction method existed all along and has been used for decades in several countries (Italy, Spain, France, Russia and the Arab world, among others) with considerable success by thousands of women: manual cellulite massage. True, massage depends a lot on the skills of the person that provides it and cannot be standardized in the same way as machine-based treatments can, but in the right hands manual cellulite-specific massage can provide fantastic results, at a relatively low cost and in a natural way.

Despite all the evidence to the contrary, both the general public and therapists alike have dismissed massage as ineffective, basing this assumption on the perceived fact that massage has no other physiological benefits than an increase in circulation. However, this assumption was only based on 20th century science, which regarded fat cells as inert fat depots - as opposed to the highly plastic, metabolically-active fat cells that we know today. We now know that mechanical stimulation has a direct effect on the behavior and viability of fat cells and therefore intense mechanical stimulation provided by a well-thought out, cellulite-specific, manual massage can actually affect not just the blood vessels and connective tissue, but also the fat cells themselves, thereby fighting all aspects of cellulite simultaneously in a beautifully simple fashion. And in contrast to the intrusive injections or the technological wonders mentioned above, cellulite-specific massage does all this in a natural, safe and, most importantly, economical way.

The only problem with traditional cellulite massage is that it has never been performed in a structured way and was never deliberately designed with cellulite physiology in mind. Cellulite massage has been traditionally performed by self-taught massage therapists. Some of them got it intuitively right and some got it wrong - yet still managed to provide some results to their clients. Taking into account the low to moderate cost and the pleasantness of the procedure, satisfaction has always been relatively high, regardless of the success rate.

Thankfully, with today’s knowledge of the anatomy of the adipose tissue, and cellulite tissue in general, we can now perform a highly effective anti-cellulite massage, which is natural, safe and side-effect free. With the addition of a good, cellulite-fighting massage medium (cellulite cream or gel) we can also increase the effectiveness of the cellulite massage, as the ingredients from the cream penetrate the skin and affect the fat tissue at the same time as it is affected by the mechanical stimulation provided by the massage.

Not just a theory - cellulite-specific massage works, and at a moderate cost in relation to overhyped hi-tech treatments and painful injections

It may all sound too good to be true but this is not just a theory - the results actually speak for themselves. Clients do feel that “this massage is really doing something” from the very first minutes of the treatment. Results are felt immediately and last for several hours or days after treatment. And with a course of treatments these results become cumulative and semi-permanent. If women follow a good diet and exercise regime the results are better. If they don’t, they still experience results but not as pronounced. In particular, skin firmness/elasticity, an important aspect of cellulite, improves regardless of lifestyle changes and depends solely on the treatment: the more treatments the client receives the more her skin becomes firmer - it is as simple as that! Poor circulation and inflammation, two other aspects of cellulite, also improve in the same fashion. The only reason the client’s input is necessary in the form of diet and exercise is that fat released by the procedure has to be “burned” by the body, otherwise it will inevitably return to the fat cells. However, this applies to literally any fat and cellulite reduction method, including all those mentioned above.

All in all, a manual cellulite-specific massage provided with the aid of a good anti-cellulite cream is at least as effective as the hi-tech or intrusive solutions - possibly more. Given the fact that such a treatment can typically cost £60-£80 per hour, or around £700 for a course of 12 sessions, cellulite-specific massage is 3-5 times more cost efficient, allowing women to either have 3-5 times more sessions for even better results, or to simply have regular prevention / maintenance sessions which can be used to prevent cellulite in the first place - or to maintain the results for years after the course of treatments. If you do have £5,000 to spare imagine what you can achieve with 80 vigorous anti-cellulite massage sessions - definitely much more than with 12 laser or injection sessions - and without the pain and the bruises!

As a conclusion, it would not be an exaggeration to say that given the current economic climate and the need for efficiency and value for money, it would be madness to throw money on extravagant treatments as there is no more rising home equity to cover the credit card bill for such treatments. Today, cellulite-specific massage represents the best solution for cellulite reduction, and due to it’s relatively low cost it allows for the first time the concept of cellulite prevention with regular massages to become a reality.

About the "Cellulite Guru" and LipoTherapeia

Georgios is a specialist therapist that has devoted the last decade in the research and treatment of cellulite reduction. Georgios has tried and tested almost every available cellulite reduction technique over the years, and concluded that, pound for pound, manual cellulite therapy provides the best value for money among all other existing treatments available today (December 2008).

Over the years Georgios has developed and perfected the Lipo Active Cellulite Massage, which utilizes the therapeutic properties of the Lipo Actives (a unique cellulite cream that contains 20x vitamins, aminoacids, herbal extracts and essential oils) with those of his cellulite-specific massage technique.

Georgios can guarantee improvements in skin firming, circulation, inflammation and lymph drainage (all important aspects of cellulite), and if the client follows his diet and exercise regime, Georgios also guarantees fat reduction too (the most important aspect of cellulite). At £60/hour for a course of 12 sessions his treatment offers excellent value for money and quality that can be enjoyed by a large percentage of the female population that suffers from cellulite - not only by the super-rich.

Georgios practises from London clinic in South Kensington and can be contacted on 0800 0758142 or at lipotherapeia@gmail.com. His website, www.LipoTherapeia.com, offers a wealth of information on cellulite, weight loss, skin firming and healthy living in general.