The Joys (and Pains) of Gardening – Cupping & Gua Sha for Acute Low Back Pain, by Jaay (Jade) Kulhawy-Bartlett, R.Ac.
If you’re like me and many of us who live in the “City of Gardens” you might be experiencing the slow build-up of stiffness or pain from the ongoing maintenance of your beloved backyard-, balcony-, or community garden. Try as we might to make things ergonomic with all the latest devices, gardening is more difficult as the time goes by. Given the relative inactivity of many of our jobs and daily lives, digging and crouching and pulling and lifting are activities that many of us find ourselves doing sporadically at best – and less and less able to do casually as the years go on.
But you don’t have to accept the slow and menacing erosion of how much time and energy you can spare to tend your beloved garden. One of the sets of tools we have in our Chinese medicine toolkit to extend your body’s gardening and farming season is our pair of body work heavy-hitters – Cupping and Gua sha!
Using these modalities we can address both acute and chronic pains due to muscle strain and repetitive use. By increasing Qi and blood flow to the muscles and joints we can remove blockages and improve nourishment where it is lacking – the two main causes of pain according to Chinese medicine. When harnessed therapeutically, the local movement of Qi and blood helps us modulate inflammatory responses and down-regulate pain signals to bring relief and improve recovery times; this allows you to bounce back from the little injuries much quicker and get back to moving.
Addressing the pattern of pain leading to relative immobility which leads to more pain, we can reverse that cycle and allow you to start building strength and mobility where pain has prevented proper and full use. It is much easier to start a movement practice or a weightlifting regime to get stronger if we aren’t trying to work around old holding patterns from injuries or sedentary lives. We can then avoid locking in a pathological movement pattern by strengthening the muscles holding that pattern in place.
Cupping and gua sha do both have contraindications, so do reach out to make sure we can work together if you have recent or large injuries to the skin, varicose veins and abscesses, and most rashes in the area you’re hoping to have treated. Acute bone breaks or instabilities in the spinal column should also be avoided in local-to-injury manual therapies. Clotting disorders can also contraindicate cupping unless cleared by your primary care provider.
Don’t let those little aches and pains get away from you this summer, come on in and we’ll help get you moving again and enjoy the sun and warmth while it is with us! Not sure if cupping or gua sha can help you? Check out our FAQ or Contact us .
Cupping & Gua sha are gentle, non-invasive, and effective treatment methods for a wide variety of conditions. Book in with us if you have some aches and pains that need attending to!
Cupping & Gua sha at Heart & Hands
WEDNESDAYS 3:00 – 6:45pm (Sessions are 30 minutes)
Please note, last session available 45 minutes before the end of each shift.
NEW clients, $50-80 sliding scale (includes $10 paperwork fee)
RETURNING clients, $40-70 sliding scale
Clients with MSP, $22-42 sliding scale
