TUINA is a massage like no other. For starters, you keep your clothes on and are covered in a cotton sheet. At mid-point, some heat is applied to the body, either through a heat lamp or ten minutes in the sauna (yes, still with your clothes on).

Tuina (pronounced twee-na) has been practised in China for around 4,000 years, but is still a relatively obscure complementary therapy to westerners.

All that might change with the news that elite Jamaican sprinter Yohan Blake - aka The Beast and the fastest man in the world after Usain Bolt - is crediting Tuina as the treatment that has enabled him to run freely again following hamstring surgery.

York therapist Errol Lynch has been treating Blake. Errol is the UK's leading Tuina practitioner and runs two clinics in York and one in London.

To mark Chinese New Year, his St Saviour's Place clinic in York is holding an open day on Saturday, offering free taster sessions of Tuina.

York Press:
Errol Lynch from York practising the ancient Chinese healing therapy of Tuina on world-class sprinter Yohan Blake in Jamaica last month.

So what's it like? To find out more, I booked in with practitioner Karen Michaelsen, at the St Saviour's Place base.

The clinic is arranged like a Chinese one - it's open plan, with two beds next to each other and a third in an adjacent room, which also hosts the infra-red sauna. People come and go, doors are left open, so while privacy is not an option, the fact that you can keep your clothes on and are covered in a sheet during the massage does not make this a problem.

Karen begins by asking my if I have any injuries or niggles. Like most desk-bound workers, I have tension in my neck and shoulders. Tuina can help with this, she assures, alongside a host of other ailments and injuries from joint pain and sciatica to scar tissue and headaches.

"Computers are one of the big problems," says Karen. "People get repetitive strain injuries because they are sitting in the one position, and they don't realise."

Karen begins by firmly placing her hands over my body, then rolling her fist across my back, concentrating on either side of my spine. She finds tight spots in my lower and mid back as well as my shoulder area.

The movements she uses are fast and forceful, Tuina is a deep massage designed to work on the muscles and boost circulation. It uses the ancient Chinese medical theory of the flow of qi (chi) - or energy - through meridians in the body.

Half way through my massage, Karen asked me to "pop into the oven" - a euphemism for the sauna, tucked away in a wooden cabin in the next room. It is an infra-red sauna, set to about 44C. There are magazines to read and the temperature is warm, but not roasting.

Karen says: "Heat helps to relax the muscles and helps make the massage more effective." Tuina, she adds, aims to boost the body's energy and promote healing. "It's all about encouraging the blood supply. What we do is move the blood in the body and get blood to the muscles and improve circulation."

Tuina is a powerful, invigorating treatment, and yet thoroughly relaxing. As Karen worked over my body, finishing with a frantic drumming with cupped hands, I felt pulses of energy ripple down from my shoulders to the top of my legs.

At the end, my body felt re-energised and my mind woozily relaxed with a deep sense of wellbeing that lasted into the rest of the day.

• There are two Touch Tuina Treatment Centres in York: St Saviour's Place, off Stonebow, and at the Northern School of Acupuncture, Micklegate. Find out more at: tuinauk.com. Sessions cost £30 for 30 minutes or £45 for an hour.

The clinic is hosting an Open Day on Saturday from 10am-4pm, offering free taster sessions in return for a donation to St Leonard's Hospice, York.