Why Rosehip is The Most Underrated Herb for Tight Muscles + Aches

Today we’re going to cover why rosehips are the perfect herb for tight muscles, aches and pains… especially stiff necks and hips that get worse during Spring (due to the Liver Qi Stagnation we’ve been talking about in this post!)

If you’ve been feeling extra achey, tight and sore — like you need to stretch a ton and even 100 epsom salt baths won’t cut it — you’re one of MANY of us feeling this way in the Spring. We recently shared that it’s “Liver Qi Stagnation Season,” ruled by the Wood element, where our energy wants to unleash moving upwards and outwards. Yet often, after a long winter of being more sedentary than usual, that energy gets ‘stuck’ leading to symptoms of Qi stagnation like aches and pains.

HOW ROSEHIP CAN HELP
The beloved Rosehip may be a Western herb, but its action (when translated into the lens of Traditional Chinese Medicine) has a dispersing quality that moves stuck Liver Qi to help resolve emotional frustration, physical stiffness, and even pain.

Think of it as the super-simple-single-herb equivalent to the famous TCM formula “Xiao Yao San,” also known as “Free and Easy Wanderer.” This formula is aptly named to open up energy channels and help ease constraints, stressors and looping worries that keep patients feeling stuck, especially during times of transition. “He is not hurried, yet moves swiftly. He goes everywhere in his freedom. He is a free and easy wanderer.”

Just like this formula, Rosehip helps relax the mind in the face of impatience and life’s pressures, and helps free the body from physical tension and stagnation that’s keeping us tight. Similar to its TCM equivalent, Rosehip can even be dosed 3-4 days leading up to your menstrual cycle and throughout, to reduce and relieve painful cramps.

While we use this herb in our Rosehip Relief concentrate for post-workout muscle soreness, it’s the perfect drink to make during Spring when your body feels more tense than usual and you’re experiencing emotional stress. As mentioned, it can help with PMS and cramps too, which can flare up worse than usual during this month as things tend to get ‘stuck.’

BONUS: MEET HAWTHORN – ROSEHIP’S HELPER HERB
Hawthorn is the complimentary herb in our Rosehip Relief formula, and is the perfect “helper herb” for resolving Qi stagnation symptoms that may also be trickling into our digestive system. If you’ve been feeling more constipated than usual during this seasonal transition, Hawthorn is your girl. Not only does this botanical help resolve TCM’s concept of ‘food stagnation,’ it’s an invigorating herb that breaks up blood stasis, moves Qi, and strengthens the heart.