► Gua Sha vs Graston

Gua Sha is a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) therapeutic technique that applies instrument-assisted ‘press-stroking’ in one direction on an oiled area of body to create transitory therapeutic petechiae, which represents emission of blood in the subcutaneous tissues.

Gua Sha vs Graston Technique

There are three features of Gua sha scraping technique which distinguish it from other manual modalities that involve pressure or fascial stretch (Graston technique, IASTM – instrument assisted soft tissue mobilization).

1. Closely repeated in time and space unidirectional press-stroking that intentionally presses into the fascia.
2. Stroking is mainly applied along a muscle and specifically not across muscle tissue.
3. The deliberate creation of sha - transitory petechiae and ecchymosis. That purpose requires closely timed repeated stroking in one direction.

The difference can quite well be seen from these two videos:

Gua Sha Technique on Neck

Graston Technique on Neck

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