According to their application, the five basic Swedish massage strokes are placed into groups called effleurage, petrissage, friction, tapotement, and vibration. These strokes are categorized based on tradition, research, observation, and experience.

Nerve stroke effleurage is a type of massage that is generally thought to be light because the client's skin is brushed with feather-light strokes all over. Yet remember not to make this stroke to light, as the client may interpret it to be goosebumps or ticklish. Typically the best time to use this stroke is at the end of a massage because it is a finishing stroke. The client may be wearing clothes, no clothes, or a drape, meaning that it can be used in both sports massages and seated massages.

Some of the benefits to nerve strokes are that they are considered "icing on the cake" because they are downward movements that are much more relaxing. Proximal to distal or superior to inferior are the direction of nerve strokes, and they are much more relaxing than any other type of stroke because of their downward heading movement.

The client is lying with his or her back (in the supine position) on the table during effleurage and the therapist is performing nerve stroke effleurage on the client's leg. The therapist should be positioned next to the leg of the client, facing the client and standing close to the massage table. The therapist can start at the knee of the client, then begin using the nerve stroke down the leg to the ankle.