What is Tui Na?
Our natural instinct to rub painful or injured parts of our body made hands-on healing humanity's first form of medicine.
Systematizing this as a Healthcare discipline began thousands of years ago in India and China.
See: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/9228
Tui Na 推拿 (also spelled "Tuina") is the "grandfather" of massage therapy, and developed long before acupuncture.
Archaeological evidence dates Tui Na as far back as 2700 BC.
Tui Na is one of the 5 Pillars of Chinese Medicine -along with Acupuncture, Herbal Medicine, Moxibustion and Qi Gong.
Tui Na is regarded as a complete system of medicine that heals injuries by correcting skeletal misalignments, decompressing joints, reconditioning muscles, improving blood flood, and addresses diseases by flushing toxins, releasing physical tension, and increasing circulation of blood and Qi with a more physically energetic approach than gentle Jin Shin.
Chinese massage therapy arose with the discover of Meridian Theory and was called An Mo (pushing & kneading). By the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD), its theory and methods had substantially evolved, and the name was changed to "Tui-Na" (pushing & grasping).
Due to the frequency of serious injuries among martial artists, Tui Na was commonly practiced by their teachers as a readily available therapy for recovery. There's a rich history of famous Tui Na developers who were also renowned martial artists, such as Wong Fei-hung and others who left legacies of several lineages.
As indicated in the pictures above, Tui Na was administered to fully clothed subjects, either sitting or reclining. However, I promote receiving Tui Na reclined to enable joint decompression and greater relaxation.
Studies supporting Tui Na:
- "Tui Na was effective and safe for alleviating poststroke spasticity within 1–3 months after stroke onset." (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6469238)
- "Clinical reports show that Tuina and acupuncture are effective in the treatment of post-stroke depression." (https://journals.lww.com/md-journal/fulltext/2021/05210/tuina_plus_acupuncture_for_post_stroke_depression_.83.aspx)
- "The results of this systematic review suggest that therapeutic Chinese massage (Tuina) in addition to conventional physiotherapy is an effective non-invasive treatment for improving upper/lower limbs motor function and for reducing spasticity especially in the subacute stage of stroke."(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8122530)
- More on Tui Na, and Massage Therapy in general, for effective Post-Stroke rehabilitation:
- https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/9228