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.

Petrissage is usually followed by friction in Swedish massage, and it is employed in several directions by compressing tissues. Friction encourages circulation, so it is commonly used in sections that have a small blood supply, like tendons or ligaments.

There are variations to friction, including superficial warming, rolling, and wringing techniques, which are general techniques, to deeper friction techniques such as cross-fiber, circular, and chucking. The back or the arm of a client is typically massaged with general techniques, and deep friction is commonly used for the ankle, the sides of the head, or the suboccipital region. Deep friction is best used for areas on the client's body that do not have a lot of muscle on them. Therapists use their palm, fingertips, thumbs, elbows, or two of their hands to employ friction (fingers and thumbs are good for more focused treatment), depending on what the client wishes to accomplish with the massage and the length of the area that needs to be massaged.

There is an experiment that a therapist can perform to learn the effects of cross-fiber friction on scar tissue repatterning on the client. For this experiment, the therapist should position 50 toothpicks any which way beneath a bulky towel. The hand - palm facing downwards - should be moving back and forth over the towel. After a couple of minutes, the random toothpick pattern will begin to change. Note whether or not they stay haphazard or they line up into a straight line.