On social media, you may find a lot of beautiful things — and a lot of questionable stuff as well. Gua Sha isn’t one of those dubious products. While it may appear to be something out of a late-night commercial, this time-honoured muscular scraping technique has numerous advantages.

Body Gua Sha has its origins in Chinese medicine (TCM). Your qi (pronounced “chi”), or energy, must circulate throughout your body in order for you to feel your best, according to TCM principles. Health problems are said to emerge when qi becomes stagnant in certain locations. Gua Sha is a technique in which a practitioner (usually an acupuncturist) uses a smooth-edged tool to gently scrape regions of your body where there is inflammation or stagnant qi in order to increase circulation and promote healing.

Gua Sha’S HEALTH BENEFITS

Gua Sha can also be used in other regions of the body. The tool’s pressure on the skin feels like a relaxing massage. It relieves muscle tension, decreases inflammation, and relaxes muscles. When applied to the body, studies suggest that it aids in the reduction of pain, the speeding up of muscle healing, and the improvement of movement.

If you have a muscle knot, you should first use your Gua Sha body massage tool to go across it. To break up all of the adhesions, you’ll want to work perpendicular to the muscle fibres. Then, to lengthen the muscle fibres and return them to their proper path, go in the direction of the muscle fibres. You want to go back and forth across those uncomfortable knots in your upper shoulders with your tool to break them apart. You’ll start moving your Gua Sha tool along the direction of the muscle fibres, which is normally inwards to outwards after things start to loosen up. However, you should not begin Gua Sha in this direction because it would simply tighten the tissue.

Gua Sha aids in the restoration and smoothing of the facia

Yes, this will reduce the appearance of dimpled skin over time (cellulite). Because fascia lies on top of and connects all of your muscles, relieving fascia tension helps redistribute any fat beneath your skin, giving you a more even appearance.

Gua Sha promotes lymphatic drainage and improves circulation

Gua Sha practice on a regular basis might assist disperse fluid in the fascia. For a moment, let’s become a little nerdy: Plasma and other fluids are supposed to be cleansed by the fascia. Researchers believe it dumps waste into the lymphatic system and then uses osmosis to carry new plasma and other fluids back into cells. In other words, when your fascia is stimulated adequately and on a regular basis, your lymphatic system may function more efficiently. It never ceases to astound us.