You can find a lot of great stuff on social media — and a lot of questionable stuff. Gua sha is not one of those problematic things. While it may look like something you’d see on a late-night TV commercial, this time-honored muscle-gua sha technique has many benefits. LAc’s licensed acupuncturist, Tim Sobo, explains what Gua Sha is and provides some helpful tips to ensure your experience is satisfying and not scary.
What is Gua Sha?
Gua Sha is rooted in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). According to the principles of Chinese medicine, your qi (pronounced “chi”), or energy, must flow throughout your body in order for you to feel your best. When qi becomes stagnant in certain areas, it is thought that there may be health problems. With Gua Sha, a doctor (in many cases an acupuncturist) will use a smooth-edged tool to gently scrape areas of the body that are inflamed or stagnant Qi to help improve blood circulation and promote healing.
“Gua Sha is a very standard form of treatment that most acupuncturists use. Its meaning is loosely translated as ‘scrape, rub or push’. Essentially, Gua Sha is just a tool-assisted massage,” explains Sobo.
The Difference Between Gua Sha Shapes and Glaston’s Method
Physical therapists sometimes combine muscle gua sha to stretch and relax muscles or scar tissue. Although this is almost Gua Sha, it is known in the industry as the Graston Technique®. In 1990, amateur athlete David Glaston introduced his version of Gua Sha to the United States. While chi is more associated with scraping, the two methods of scraping muscles are roughly the same, Sobo said.
“The Graston technique is just a trademark version of the Gua Sha massage technique. The difference is that you get Graston from a physical therapist. They will discuss the technique entirely in anatomical or physiological terms. If you go to a very strict acupuncturist , you may hear more about boosting Qi and blood circulation and helping to break energy stagnation in the body. But at the end of the day, both treatments have the same target outcome.”
The Benefits of Gua Sha
Gua Sha has been reported to help relieve a variety of health conditions. Sobo says Gua Sha is good for musculoskeletal problems, especially major problems like tightness in the shoulders, legs and back. It can also help relieve tension headaches, migraines, neck pain, or body swelling. In addition to acupuncture, Gua Sha can even help relieve anxiety, fatigue, insomnia, and perimenopausal symptoms, Sobo added.
“We’re just promoting airflow in the body. We’re helping to ensure better blood supply and proper nerve conduction so that everything goes through your body the way it should. While doing Gua Sha, hopefully any symptoms you experience will be Fading. That’s the overall goal.”
He added: “Through gua sha, acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine, we can see many diseases. If your blood and energy flow throughout the body is not smooth, it may manifest as muscle nodules, soreness, weakness or pain. Acupuncture and gua sha will only Helps promote the healthy conduction of blood supply and everything through the tissues so we can keep your body as balanced as possible.”
Body Gua Sha Shapes
Sobo says the body’s gua sha is tissue-dependent, which means you want to work in a way that supports the goals of the treatment.
“If you have a muscle knot, you want to run your gua sha tool through it first. You’ll want to work perpendicular to the muscle fibers so you can break all the adhesions. Then, you want to pull in the direction of the muscle fibers long to get them going in the right direction again. You have those painful knots in your shoulders and you want to use your tool back and forth through them to break the knots. Once things start to loosen up, you’ll start moving the scraping tool in the direction of the muscle fibers Move, usually from the inside out. You don’t start gua sha in this direction, though, because you’ll just tighten the tissue.”
It is recommended that you choose a larger guasha shaped. Black obsidian gua sha Big V-shaped with teeth is a good choice.
Gua Sha Shaped on Face
You may have seen people on social media gua sha stones on their faces and wondered what happened. Gua sha has been shown to help relieve facial tension, reduce puffiness and inflammation, and can even help reduce sinus pressure. However, since the musculature of the face is much thinner, you want to avoid putting too much pressure on this area.
“In general, the musculature in the face is very thin and doesn’t bulge like other muscles. With gua sha on the face, you don’t want to drag your tools off the outer edges of your face. Instead, imagine pulling your face Divide in half, using your nose as the middle point. If you are working under your eyes, you will start at your nose and work your scraping tool outward. Keep your tool moving in a smooth, straight line. Don’t rub too hard Go back and forth, up and down, and at different angles, because that just stretches and aggravates the skin. Keep things going in a smooth direction, and do it just enough to create a little bit of redness, but not too hurtful.”
To help with the problem, you can even apply a lotion or serum before gua sha on your face. This way, your tool will slide over the skin more easily. Sobo recommends avoiding overly swollen areas. You don’t want to press those too hard, as you might burst the capillary bed and end up with bruises on your face.
When using it on the face, it is recommended that you choose a guasha with a smaller volume. V-shaped rose quartz gua sha is one of the most suitable options
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