I started to study and work in the area physical therapy in the early 1990’s, as with many people I started with basic western massage styles, but due to my long standing involvement in Chinese Martial Arts I was more interested in asian styles of therapy.
I started to study Acupuncture and Chinese bodywork. The bodywork styles were AnMo and TuiNa. As my training continued I was exposed to various teachers from the UK, mainland China and Malaysia, they all had something to offer but I was troubled by the fact that to greater or lesser degrees they all delivered their treatments differently using different interpretations of TCM theory and sometimes using different theories all together.
Over time I came to understand the complex history of Chinese Medicine and appreciate that it is made up of multiple layers of interpretation and reinterpretation of a variety of concepts and theories, some being quite archaic and some even being linked to numerology and Chinese astrology! I also learned that what is now called TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) is actually a creation of the 1970’s when the Chinese government tried to modernise TCM having failed to outlaw it completely.
I did however find AnMo to be genuinely useful and effective. Part of what appealed to me was that its basis could be traced, in part, to an early text known as the Ling Shu. The Ling Shu outlined physical structures known as Jing Jin (Sinew Channels). These structures are closely related to what has recently been “rediscovered” as “Anatomy Trains. Anatomy Trains highlighted the fact that muscle - tendon - fascial structures are interlinked across the body and can influence each other. I believe that the Jing Jin structures were identified before the complex “Meridian” structures were created. This would make sense as it is far more likely that bodily structures that can be identified via manual palpation and yogic exercise would be mapped before tiny points that require the insertion of needles, let alone the relatively recent meridian lines.
A similar pattern can be identified in the evolution of Shiatsu in Japan. AnMa (Japanese version of AnMo) was imported into Japan about 1000 years ago and it arrived with Chinese Medical Theory attached. In post war Japan, as Japan went through a modernisation phase while under American occupation a man called Tokujiro Namikoshi created the first therapy school of Shiatsu which relied more upon western physiology rather than Chinese Medicine. Interestingly other schools of Shiatsu were invented, some of these schools chose to reinsert TCM theory. I did training in both Shiatsu and Thai Yoga Massage and found that working on a floor mat (Futon) was really advantageous compared with working on a massage table which is the way it is usually delivered today.
So that’s a quick history of my journey into An-Mo and Shiatsu. In the next post we’ll look at how AnMo - Shiatsu is delivered and how it can enhance your health and wellbeing.
#backpain #bodywork #therapy #TCM #shiatsu #AnMo #AnMa
