What is the order of acupuncture and massage?

At present, whether it is clinical physical therapy or daily health care, there is no one-size-fits-all fixed sequence standard. In most conventional strain care scenarios, practitioners prefer to perform massage first and then acupuncture. There are also many special cases where the order will be adjusted or even interspersed. It all depends on the user's condition and conditioning goals.

Think about it, when many people come for treatment, their muscles are stiff and lumpy, especially the shoulders, necks, waist and abdomen, which are commonly strained areas. They are as hard as dried rubber bands. If you directly insert the needle at this time, either the needle will be inserted and the breath will be slowed down and the sensation cannot be dispersed. I met a young man who works on the Internet last week. The nodule on his trapezius muscle was so hard that it could hurt his hands. When he came here for the first time, he asked for it to be pierced because he was afraid of delaying picking up the child. As a result, it hurt for a long time after the piercing, and the soreness in his shoulder and neck did not reduce much. The second time Lai Laoshi pressed the needle for fifteen minutes first, kneading the superficial muscles and loosening the nodules before injecting the needle. He himself said that the needle sensation went directly along the neck to the back of the head. After the needle was applied, the whole neck could be turned away, and the soreness, swelling and pain were almost 70% gone. Massage first is equivalent to opening the way for Qi and blood, clearing the blockage on the surface first, and relaxing the muscles, so that the power of acupuncture can better penetrate into the deeper layers, and the effect will naturally be reduced.

However, I have been running a physical therapy center for five or six years and have encountered many situations. There are really no hard and fast rules that must be followed. I met an aunt who had an acute attack of lumbar protrusion before. When she came, she couldn't touch her waist at all. The pain was so painful that she broke out in cold sweats. At this time, she definitely couldn't get a massage first. She first pricked several corresponding acupuncture points in Yaoyangguan and Weizhong. After leaving the needles for 20 minutes, she said that most of the pain subsided and her muscles were no longer as tight as a stone slab. At this time, I used light techniques to relax the tense muscles in her waist. She didn't say any pain during the whole process, and she could walk by herself after holding on to the wall. There are also some conditioning scenarios where the needle sensation needs to be enhanced. After inserting the needle, gently massage around the needle to help the sensor diffuse. It is not strictly about who goes first and who comes last.

Many colleagues also feel that as long as the diagnosis is accurate and the techniques are in place, the order has little impact on the effect. In fact, the order itself is never the criterion for judging whether the treatment is qualified or not. How to make the guests suffer less and maximize the effect of the treatment is the most important priority.