Interventions
Whole body TTM was applied to participants in the TTM group for 90 min by a certified Thai massage therapist. The massage points applied in this study were along the lines shown in Fig. 1. The TTM was done in supine, side lying to left and right, prone and sitting positions. The pressing technique employed in TTM has been described in previous studies (Chatchawan et al., 2005 and Mackawan et al., 2007). The control participants were asked to be awake in the supine position for 90 min. They were told that during this period they should move minimally. The room temperature in both interventions was controlled at around 25–28 °C. In order to reduce the contamination effect, the participants in each group were treated separately to a different schedule and in different rooms.
Figure 1. TTM points for whole body massage.