Suffering From WFH Pains? Here’s How Gua Sha Can Relieve Your Neck & Shoulder Aches

By Sophie Hong on 26 Nov 2021

Senior Editor

Are your neck and shoulders hurting a lot more during this WFH period? You are not alone. Some of us do not have the luxury of space to invest in a proper office setup, so we make do with whatever we already have at home. Either that, or the allure of your bed is impossible to resist and you end up spending most of your workday there, in a posture that might not be the most ergonomic.

Combined with a sedentary lifestyle, this can lead to chronic muscle aches or worse health problems down the line. Your best bet to reverse this is to improve your lifestyle, but in the meantime, if you’re looking for quick pain relief that you can administer on your own, try Gua Sha.

Also known as scraping, Gua Sha is a form of traditional Chinese therapy based on the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) concept of meridians, which are the pathways where your life energy, or “qi”, flows.

Read on to find out more about how Gua Sha can help to relieve your WFH pains!

Why your neck and shoulders are aching, according to TCM

Photo from Eu Yan Sang TCM Clinic

Neck and shoulder aches are amongst the most common types of pain seen by TCM physicians. But why?

The biggest culprit is bad posture, especially when you’re sitting down. A bad posture (e.g. hunching) can cause low blood flow in certain areas of your body, causing instability in your nerves. That’s when you’ll start feeling pain.

And if your work or mobile devices are not placed at an ideal height, it can result in your neck stiffening because you’re putting too much strain on those muscles. This can cause blockages in your meridians, resulting in the pains and aches that you’re experiencing.

What is Gua Sha, exactly?

Photo from Eu Yan Sang TCM Clinic

Gua Sha, as its name suggests, involves using a scraping tool along the parts of your body where the meridians are. Doing this will produce red bruising or rash-like marks on your skin, which is perfectly normal and should subside after a week.

How can Gua Sha help with pain relief?

The scraping motion during Gua Sha treatment is said to relieve muscle tension and tightness, as well as release blockage in the meridians. According to TCM, this will allow “qi” to flow better and promote blood circulation, thus relieving you of neck and shoulder pain.

Research has shown that Gua Sha does help to reduce the severity of pain for patients who suffer from chronic neck or back pain. In one study, patients who were treated with just one session of Gua Sha reported less neck pain compared to patients who were treated with a local thermal heat pad.

Eu Yan Sang’s Know-Your-Body: Pain Management TCM Package

Photo from Eu Yan Sang TCM Clinic

If you’re considering Gua Sha, but would like the convenience and affordability of being able to do it yourself, sign up for the Know-Your-Body Programme: Managing Pain with Scraping at Eu Yan Sang TCM Clinic.

The package ($50 nett) includes:

1 x scraping board (gua sha)
1 x online gua sha review session with TCM physician
1 x in-clinic consultation with TCM physician

During the in-clinic consultation, you will be assessed by a TCM physician from Eu Yan Sang TCM Clinic, who will be able to advise on the cause of your neck and shoulder pain and identify which meridians need attention.

Following that, you will have an online gua sha review session, where a TCM physician will be able to guide you through the Gua Sha process, the pressure points to focus on as well as the things to watch out for - so that you can administer your treatment safely and effectively.

Photo from Eu Yan Sang TCM Clinic