Massage, also called “Tuina”, is one of the earliest medical forms found from mankind and can be seen in the medical history of every old nation all over the world. It has been used in China for almost 2,000 years. It dates back to the Shang Dynasty of China. Historical records show that massage was first used to treat children's diseases. Then massage was included in the Imperial Medical College as a separate department. By two thousand years ago, it had developed into a widely-used medical means.

As time went on, massage was used as a term for both medical and pleasurable massage. Around the Tang dynasty, the first Tuina specialists appeared. It flourished throughout China’s history until the Qing Dynasty where it was suppressed along with other Chinese cultural arts. In 1949, the Chinese government officially recognized the medical benefits of the massage and renamed this aspect to “Tuina”. ‘Tui’ means Push and ‘Na’ means Grasp. It was officially incorporated into traditional Chinese medicine as a medical therapy to be used for problems where acupuncture and herbs were less effective.

What are the main types of Chinese Massage?

Infant massage

This Chinese massage form is the most popular around the world at this moment. There are major benefits of infant massaging. Firstly, caring touch conveys nurturing and love and is good for every child. It lessens tension, fussiness and irritability and makes the baby feel quite comfortable. Secondly, it can increase awareness of the baby and also the parents’ awareness of their babies’ needs. At the meanwhile, it promotes Communications between parents and babies. What’s more, Infant massage helps improve the baby’s sleep so that they can sleep sounder and longer. At last, the Chinese massage greatly helps in reducing colic in children.

This type of Chinese massage is mainly for the purpose of rest and relaxation. It is a smooth, gentle style of massage. This is not designed for therapeutic effects or for dealing with chronic pain or discomfort. Instead, it focuses on improving circulation, relieving minor muscle pain, and promoting overall relaxation.

It is not a deep tissue massage. It is just a gentle kneading and rubbing of the outer layers of the body tissue. It will cover a wide range of areas on the body including the back, legs, arms and neck.

Zero balancing massage therapy

Zero Balancing is a simple, yet powerful hands-on method of aligning body energy with body structure. It is one of the most recently developed methods of body work. This Chinese massage integrates fundamental principles of Western science with Eastern concepts of body, mind and spirit. It helps brings the body and the mind back into harmonious balance. It can provide immediate benefits as well as long-term effects. It helps in stress relief, and provides self-actualization.

Why is massage so popular?

It is easy to see that Chinese massage does people a lot of good. It is well suited for the treatment of specific musculoskeletal disorders and chronic stress-related disorders of the digestive, respiratory and reproductive systems. Researches have shown that the benefits of massage include pain relief, reduced trait anxiety and depression, and temporarily reduced blood pressure, heart rate, and state of anxiety.
Chinese massage is one of the most important healing techniques and helps relieving tension, anxiety, depression, stress, stiffness, and pain. At the same time, Chinese massage mainly stimulates blood circulation and assists the lymphatic system. It improves breathing and circulation. So there is an improved elimination of waste throughout the body. Moreover, Chinese massage helps in reducing some diseases like allergies, asthma, arthritis, bronchitis, digestive disorders, headache, insomnia, sports injuries, and sinusitis. Deep tissue massage helps in breaking up the tightness in the muscle tissue and retreating the muscles, while soft massage is very relaxing and most people fall asleep during the treatment. At last, Chinese massage is also used to relieve fatigue which can be caused from the muscles in the body being so tight.