How Do You Use Gua Sha for Anti Cellulite Treatment?
Gua sha is a massage technique used in traditional East Asian medicine which is very useful to treat muscle pain and tension
But, until today there is no clinical research of how well this Gua Sha works relieving pain on muscle. Through this article, you will learn a lot more about whether gua sha is effective, or it has any side effects for some people.
Mainly, Gua sha is performed to move energy, known as qi or chi, around your body and the treatment itself is using a tool such as roller jade to rub the skin in long strokes, which needs to be applied enough pressure to create light bruising.
Commonly, you may feel an immediate shift in your condition particularly if you have pain because in this phase Gua Sha moves stuck Qi and Blood and releases the exterior mimicking sweating, and moves fluids.
Again, Gua Sha promotes circulation and normalizes metabolic processes.
It is a valuable treatment for both external and internal pain, and facilitates the resolution of both acute and chronic disorders.
If you decide to use Gua Sha as a cellulite therapy, it points to reduce swelling and facilitates Lymphatic drainage or stagnation of energy called cellulite to fluid then to move and circulate thus helping reduce trapped fluids and toxins under the skin that you can practice it after your shower once a day as a home treatment
Gua sha works on helping to break down scar tissue and connective tissue, where it is performed to improve movement in the joints.
And, the treatment itself does not give any serious side effects
However, Gua Sha is not suitable for those with certain medical conditions since this is used as a tool to scrape scar tissue area
As said earlier, Gua sha uses a tool to pressure and scrape the skin to relieve pain and tension on muscle where this action may cause light bruising appearing as purple or red spots known as petechiae or sha.
This qi or chi is energy flowing through your body must be balanced and flowing freely to ensure your health and wellbeing.
In line with this, you can also block qi, which may cause pain or tension in the muscles and joints.
It is why Gua sha is needed to move this blocked energy to relieve aches or stiffness on your muscle.
Mainly, Gua Sha is raised at the Yang surface of the body from the back, neck, shoulders, buttocks, to limbs.
Also, Gua Sha can be applied at the chest and abdomen through therapeutic massages
In a traditional medicine of East Asian, blood stasis or stagnation may cause pain and illness in which performing gua sha is the way to move pooled or stagnated blood to relieve symptoms to go back to normal condition.
If it is correctly performed in the right way, scraping method-gua sha body therapy-which can alleviate muscle pain and reduce inflammation, among other things
Moreover, if you perform body gua sha to your body fully, you will get benefit on the skin primarily
Actually, doing Gua Sha is more about promoting circulation in the muscles and other deep tissues which are in injuries, muscle spasms generally, inflammation, mobility, and long-standing chronic tension that may cause either local pain or organ dysfunction.
At this point, doing gua sha is more targeted and it can reach both smaller and larger joints which are not as easily accessible otherwise.
Furthermore, Gua Sha can be helpful for a wide range of people, such as menopausal women with hormonal changes, weightlifters with thigh muscle recovery, and people with chronic back pain and muscle tension.
In the way of relieving muscle pain, doing a press-stroke treatment of the skin can help boost your immune system that you can use with Gua Sha therapy whereby the scratching and scraping can send signals locally to the thigh muscle and skin then modulate defensive functions, like fighting off the common cold.
Can Gua Sha Reduce Thigh Cellulite?
Cellulite occurs in low lymphatic circulation, coupled with lipid deposition, swells the fat cells where these fat cells will deposit under the skin that will create cellulite in the result.
That statements have explained why you have cellulite in your body
For such reasons, gua sha therapy is needed to promote lymphatic circulation so that the lymph can move to loosen up the cellulite, and that also moves from its place.
In gua sha, the scraping technique to your thighs or the glutes physically shifts and moves the cellulite.
At least, the effect of these two actions will reduce cellulite in the affected parts.
So, you may wonder how the cellulite has really dissolved and disappeared from the scraped part.
Anyway, there is no explanation related to cellulite reduction but the disappearance happens that reduced cellulite may come back after some time on discontinuance of Gua Sha.
How to Do Self Gua Sha on Thigh Muscle Cellulite
Before you start your thigh muscle treatment especially for women you must know your menstrual cycle, and the historical root of your back pain where stress manifesting may be causing physical pain.
The one thing is important is that your skin will not actually peel off from the spoon scraping when doing Gua Sha
As usual, for the first time, the bruises or red spot is on your scraped skin but after a few days, the redness will turn into a henna tattoo-like brown then eventually fade away completely.
You may also feel aching, tenderness or a knotty feeling in the muscles.
For some people even regain their movement back on their neck in a long time immediately after they can’t move a joint and neck muscle
Once getting a feeling of relaxation after Gua Sha treatment, you may continue to get monthly treatments for maintenance and to sustain the results achieved the first time around.
Beginner`s Guide to Use Gua Sha for Cellulite Treatment
To apply Gua Sha, you must firstly lubricate the area with oil.
Secondly, just take a small tool called the Gua Sha tool and angle it to the skin with the smooth edge touching the skin.
Here, the skin is rubbed in downward strokes
Then one area is stroked until the petechiae that surface are completely raised.
At this phase, if there is no Blood stasis the petechiae or red spot will not form and the skin will only turn pink.
Very light colored pink refers to deficiency of blood.
According to this, if the rubbed skin color is fresh red, it is of recent penetration.
And, if you find your scraped skin with Gua Sha turns purple or black, the blood stasis is long-standing.
Still related to this, if it is brown color, the blood may be dry.
Additionally, if it is turning to maroon color it indicates heat on your skin.
Benefits Gua Sha for Thigh Muscle Cellulite
As said in the prolog of this article, Gua sha is most often used to help people relieve conditions of the muscles and bones, musculoskeletal disorders such as back pain, tendon strain, and carpal tunnel syndrome and joint pain.
Although Gua Sha has not been proven clinically, some people said that gua sha can also benefit the immune system and reduce inflammation which may be in certain areas of your body including in thigh.
And, gua sha is used to treat a cold, fever, or problems with the lungs.
After doing Gua Sha on your body, you may get injuries to your body, such as the bruises which are sometimes known as microtrauma.
These bruises create a response in the body that may help to break up scar tissue and it may also help with fibrosis, which is a buildup of too much connective tissue when the body creates recovery or heals during the Gua Sha treatment.
Besides, if you need to move joints on connective tissue caused by a repetitive strain injury or another condition you may need to do stretching and strengthening exercises along with Gua sha treatments.
Gua Sha Side Effects and Risks
The above paragraph said that post Gua Sha treatment commonly creates the bruises on your body, known as microtrauma that is a response in the body that may help to break up scar tissue during the healing process
Related to this circumstance, Gua sha may cause tiny blood vessels near the surface of the skin called capillaries to burst which makes the distinctive red or purple bruises, known as sha.
Anyway, the bruises usually take a few days or a week to heal and can be tender while healing where you can fade these bruises away by taking an over-the-counter painkiller, such as ibuprofen, to help with pain and reduce swelling.
In order not to bump the bruised area, you must protect it with an ice pack that can help to reduce inflammation and ease any pain.
During Gua sha, scrape your skin gently and avoid to break the skin during the treatment, which may caused by hard scraping on skin surface
To minimize any risk to your skin such as infection, always remember to always sterilize your Gua Sha tools between treatments.
The Best Choice Gua Sha Tools for Your Thigh Muscle Cellulite
For some massage tools can be used for your pain muscle and a hand held tool with rounded edges is commonly used in gua sha.
For years ago, a spoon or coin would be used to scrape the skin, but today, a small hand-held tool with rounded edges are the tools which are popular in gua sha or graston technique.
Gua sha tools are often weighted to help you do the procedure to apply pressure on the skin easily.
Besides, some materials including bian stone, jade, and rose quartz as having an energy are used to support healing.
Medical grade stainless steel is often used for gua sha and graston techniques.
In practice, you can apply oil to the area of the body that is being treated, which allows you to move the tool across the skin more smoothly.
You can use the gua sha tool to press it into the body smoothly, firm strokes in one direction.
Also, you can do gua sha to be carried out on the back, or back of the legs, and you may need to lie face down on a massage table to practice gua sha but you need Gua Sha practitioners to do this.
Pros
Gua Sha is really different from a massage in that it focuses on how your body works and the underlying organ and tissue systems.
Gua Sha is also deeper than most massages out there which are likely more localized to problematic areas with muscle pain and mobility issues
On the other side, for relaxation or an anxiety reducer, getting acupuncture or a traditional massage on your body would be more up your alley.
Anyway, Gua Sha is a completely safe technique of massage, and it is serious medicine for people with chronic pain which can often treated with light rub of Gua Sha tool
Some benefits you get from doing Gua Sha really help you when you are using computers and suffer from neck and shoulder pain.
If you are a woman with perimenopause symptoms, such as sweating, insomnia, and headaches, you can do gua sha to reduce the pain on your muscle.
And, if you are weightlifters, doing Gua Sha will really help you recover your thigh muscle fast after training
For older adults with back pain, doing Gua Sha on it will give big impact of getting better on your back muscle to normal
Gua Sha also improves the range of movement and reduces pain for those who often use computers frequently compared with a control group that has no treatment.
If you are weightlifters, doing hard gua sha will help you lift weights took less effort after Gua Sha treatment as the treatment can suggest the speeds up muscle recovery.
If you undergo back pain, you are treated with either gua sha or a hot pack to relieve symptoms equally well, but the effects of gua sha lasted longer.
After a week, for those people who are treated with gua sha treatment have greater flexibility and less back pain than they felt before.
Cons
Gua Sha is not suitable for the ones who have had surgery recently, who have clotting disorders, or those who can not hold the pain any longer since you will get light bruises on their skin.
If you are pregnant women, do not apply Gua Sha since your skin will be more sensitive
If you are in medical conditions affecting the skin or veins, stay away from Gua Sha first
If you are the one who are easily bleeding, dot no use Gua Sha
If you are taking medication to thin your blood do not apply Gua Sha for the next days
If you have deep vein thrombosis Gua Sha is really not suitable for you
If you have an infection, tumor, or wound that has not healed fully, do not even try this Gua Sha
If you have an implant, such as a pacemaker or internal defibrillator Gua Sha is not recommended for you
if your surgery has happened within the last six weeks, do not use Gua Sha
Conclusion
Gua sha is used to treat a range of illnesses and disorders, but research has only been carried out on a small number of specific medical conditions.
Cellulite is primarily caused by fat and waste products such as toxins which are trapped under the skin.
For the treatment, the motion of gua sha tool, one’s lymphatic system will be stimulated to move and expel access toxins.
According to this line, gua sha is great at reducing inflammation, and it is useful to treat ailments that are the cause of chronic pain, such as arthritis and fibromyalgia, as well as those that trigger muscle, neck pain, tight shoulders, and upper back and joint pain.
If you had applied Gua sha technique, you would feel the improvement of chronic pain because of tension in the shoulders area, neck, and upper back.
You can use gua sha to release pain down the legs and edema.
Gua sha is unlikely to have any serious side effects, but it can be painful for some people.
A person who plans to have gua sha should make sure that they go to an experienced practitioner.
Gua Sha technique can help weightlifters which often get thigh muscles pain after doing a lifting
Applying Gua Sha could help speed up recovery from lifting and some weightlifters felt they needed to invest less effort to lift after getting treatment related to their muscle.
As an alternative in body treatment especially for skin care, applying Gua Sha regularly is often referred to as a natural alternative to botox, in which it can give you profound benefits when it is used on the face as it gets the lymphatic fluid moving and encourages blood flow, which will help purge the build-up of toxins on your body.