Tui Na Massage is the manual therapy, or massage therapy, branch of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Traditional Chinese medicine is said to have five branches: acupuncture, herbs, diet, exercise including movement and qigong, and manual therapy or Tui Na Massage. All of these are intimately linked together. All five branches share a common body of theories and core concepts regarding diagnosis and treatment.
One link I find fascinating is between the shoulder treatment sequence in Tui Na Massage and the Tornado Core exercises in Liang Zhen Pu Ba Gua Zhang (liang Zhen Pu style of Eight Diagrams Palm – a classical Chinese Martial Art). The shoulder treatment sequence is series of manual therapy techniques used to treat the shoulder and entire arm. The Tornado Core or “arm swing drills” of Liang Zhen Pu are a sequence of exercises created by the founder of Ba Gua Zhang, Eight Diagrams Palm, Tung Hai Chang, to prepare the brave young shepherd boy, Liang Zhen Pu, for martial arts training. These drills are simply wonderful for healing and coordinating the shoulders.
The Tornado Core exercises use movement of the center of the body generated in the legs and feet to toss or swing the arms. These non-contractive rotational movements use centrifugal force to open up and deeply relax your shoulders. These movements unwind tension from deep in the shoulders and help to rebalance the entire upper body including the neck and head.
The techniques in the Shoulder treatment sequence of Tui Na Massage take the patients arm and shoulder through almost all the rotations and movements in the Tornado Core. However, in this case, the Tui Na Massage practitioner is holding the patients arm and shoulder and supporting its weight so the patient can relax their shoulder deeply.
Essentially, the Tui Na Massage treatment and the exercises in the tornado Core use very similar movements and strive to create identical results. If you know the Tornado Core Exercises you can give yourself a treatment whenever you feel the need. If you already know Tui Na Massage learning the shoulder sequence helps you understand the functionality of the shoulder and how to unwind the shoulder. Doing the Tornado Core as a massage practitioner helps you become stronger, more flexible, bilaterally balanced and better coordinated, truly conditioning your own shoulders to help treat others better.