My first lesson in Tui Na massage therapy began with a lesson in pushups. Normally, my understanding is, massage therapy classes don’t involve learning long and complex push up sequences! I wouldn’t know honestly, my first lesson started with pushups. The group of students was a mix of veteran martial artists and already certified professional massage therapists earning continuing education credits to maintain their licenses. At the time it was apparent that most of the massage therapists also thought this was highly unusual…
For those of us who were veteran martial artists the push up sequence known as “Fu Hu Gong” or “Lying Tiger Skill” from the martial art of Xing Yi Quan, or Form and Will Boxing, was pure gold. This series of exercises goes far beyond regular pushups and uses 12 different hand positions. Each pushup is done with a careful sequence using all the muscles in the body intimately connected and timed to each inhale and exhale. These exercises are dynamite for developing incredibly useful, functional strength for striking and grappling. They are part of our Tiger Core Exercises. They are also wonderful for mastering coordinating your breathing and using your strength during either forms practice or sparring.
The reason we would start a Tui Na massage therapy training session with a secret martial arts conditioning sequence is because:
- The Tui Na therapeutic massage techniques are an integral part of the classical Chinese martial art of Xing Yi Quan. Learning the basics of Traditional Chinese Medicine helps understand the foundation of classical Chinese martial arts of all styles, but especially Xing Yi Quan.
- During a Tui Na Massage treatment the hand positions and breathing from the pushup sequence are used while doing the massage techniques. The primary Tui Na techniques used to treat the back and spine are all identical to the hand positions and breathing in the Tiger Core exercises. If you have practiced the push up sequence correctly it is easy to do the “back sequence” of Tui Na Massage. If you don’t, most people find it extremely difficult to successfully do these techniques. Tui Na Massage is amazingly effective as a treatment method. However, each technique requires skill developed through practice. Many techniques require considerable strength as well as sensitivity.
- Learning the Tiger Core Exercises properly improves the results of the Tui Na massage techniques. Because the Tiger Core exercises build plenty of strength and teach how to sequence the muscles of the shoulders, they use the strength of the shoulders and back to perform each technique. This means that the practitioners hands, wrists, and forearms are not used to generate the force or pressure for each technique. Instead, the hands and wrist can emphasize sensitivity because they are not tense and straining.
- Doing the Tiger core push up sequence also helps teach the proper structure and sequence of using the shoulder, elbow, wrist, and hand correctly avoiding strain and injury to the practitioner. With these skills treating your friends and family becomes incredibly easier, more pleasant, and also far more effective.
The link between the Lying Tiger or Tiger Core exercises and traditional Tui Na massage therapy is deep and old. In the modern world if you are a massage therapist learning a little of a martial art intimately linked to massage therapy like Xing Yi Quan goes an incredibly long ways into developing deeper skills. For the martial artist learning how to apply the same physical skills in massage therapy and being able to help your friends, family, classmates and students is a simply wonderful gift to everyone around you! Learning the basics of Traditional Chinese Medicine also helps you understand the intimate link between the Classical Chinese Martial Arts and Traditional Chinese Medicine.
