I think that curiosity and the desire to know must always accompany the existence of a man and that therefore knowing the past helps us to understand the present and prepare us for the future.

Four years ago when I started to study how to best make my wooden instruments for the practice of Maderoterapia Metodo Manuel Casado® I started doing research and I discovered something really curious … modern rollers.

I saw a curious roller from 1920 in a shop in Belgium and then bought it immediately to be able to look at it in real life and to discover its history.
I later bought a second one, in a shop in England and the following is what I discovered.

In 1920 the PUNKT ROLLERS of the “Mark on the Brow” brand were born in Germany and are proposed as self-massage rollers. As you can see from the photos there were various models all with wooden handles: some had a central body formed by 4 or 3 rubber sections that had small holes in which interchangeable suction cups were positioned, which had the function of creating the vacuum. and they intended to break down the adipocytes and bring the fat back into the bloodstream; others had knurled spheres in the central part and still others were smaller and had only two lateral sections.

THE ORIGINS OF MADEROTHERAPY MASSAGE ® MANUEL CASADO METHOD

In the advertisements of the time they promised miraculous toning results for men and women; the achievement of perfect physical shape and even as a cure for rheumatism, lumbago, gout, neuritis and all related diseases. Their use was also recommended for models to achieve the desired thinness. 

The Punkt Rollers could be found in almost every store: at Harrods, in drugstores, pharmacies and Boots stores and they had been a great success and as you can see from the attached posters there was a real marketing operation with lots of explanatory images on self-massage maneuvers.

As the years went by, around 1940, other firms began to produce tools, sometimes very imaginative, for massaging and losing weight.In addition to the Punkt-Roller from Germany, the Knead-Away (left), was produced by Sears Roebuck and presented as “the scientific way to remove fat,” and the “Redusaway” (right), which when connected to the current vibrates and blows hot air (cit. Roger Collier) 

THE ORIGINS OF MASSAGE MADEROTERAPIA® METODO MANUEL CASADO

The life of these tools was actually relatively short and their use was lost but in my opinion this happened mainly for two reasons. They were designed for self-massage and therefore there was no good manual technique at the base of the treatment, a fundamental element for the success of any massage technique that uses tools as adjuvants to the treatment, and secondly they were made with unsuitable material. (gum).

During a period in which I lived in Costa Rica I also learned that in the nineties a massage technique was born in South America with the use of wooden rollers similar to those of Germany in 1920. I therefore decided to apply the basic mechanics of the ancient rollers, to the philosophy of the TAOGARDEN school which uses only natural elements, such as stones, wood, bamboo, organic oils and to create rollers with completely natural and unpainted wooden elements to which I have applied exclusive structural changes to allow manual skills otherwise not possible to achieve (example asymmetrical handles).

The “wood” element in contact with the body transmits harmonic vibrations which tend to create evident benefits for the body and mind and restore energy balances. From my experience as a researcher and operator of holistic massage I am convinced that the current instruments made of wood, a natural material, combined with an excellent manual massage technique represent the winning formula and destined to last over time unlike their predecessors.
source:  http://www.taogarden.it/index.php/it/blog/82-l-igine-del-massaggio-maderoterapia