HEALING TENDON AND LIGAMENT INJURIES THE HARD WAY
These series of post are mainly
my own LIMITED thoughts and experience from practicing Yiquan and should be
taken with a HUGE DOSE OF SALT.
For those of you who have
experienced the (dis)pleasure of tendon or ligament injuries from overuse of
certain parts of the bodies as a result of day to day household chores or
office work, it can either be a blessing or a curse, depending on your attitude
to it.
Speaking from personal
experience, unlike muscular pains and aches that go away after a few days of
rest, tendon or ligament injuries are literally a PAIN IN THE ASS. Not only is
the pain more excruciating, but it doesn’t heal as quickly. And when it’s a
part of the body you’re prone to using, like your legs, or wrists, what are you
to do? It’s almost as if you’ve become an invalid for a period of time. If you’re
distracted just for a split second, it’s easy to accidentally overuse that area
and ouch… the injury and pain returns.
The faster the pain goes away,
the better it is, most would think. Painkillers or steroid injections are
possibly the only way out. After all, who can afford to take weeks off from
work or just rest at home recovering from these sorts of injuries?
Unfortunately, painkillers or
steroid injections only treat the symptoms of the injuries. They don’t treat
the underlying reason for the pain that occurs. Tendon and ligaments are
remarkably resilient. The downside is that they also take their own sweet time
to heal. The reason for the injuries is because these are yellow to red zones
in the body. Read more here.
The analogy is the same as when
a colleague calls in for sick leave for a month due to a serious illness. You’re
likely divide up his duties amongst the different colleagues in your department
to help out in the work and let your sick colleague rest. Same goes here:
1.
Let
the injured tendon and ligament rest;
2.
Retrain
and focus on the other areas of the bodies to take compensate for the lack of
use in the injured areas.
Resting the injured areas is
easier said than done. In fact, it might be one of the hardest thing you might
face. The reason the yellow to red zone is injured is because you’re prone to
over-using it for every little thing. E.g. if you’re right handed and always
use your wrist for the following:
1.
Brush
your teeth... [grip it with the thumb and wrist with excessive strength!]
2.
Typing
text on the smartphone [right thumb and wrist… grip it tightly!]
3.
Sweeping
the floor [right hand, use the wrist to sweep… but of course!]
4.
Lift
a mug to drink [right hand, of course the wrist, why not?]
5.
Clicking
on a mouse, combing hair, changing clothes, opening windows… etc.
The list goes on and on and on…
Rest! It means you must learn
NOT to use that area of your body and let it completely rest to heal. This
requires conscious effort. Obviously, the pain makes it easier. The more pain
you’re feeling, the more you’re tensing up the area. If you relax, the pain
will go away. Easy, yeah…? But argh… no the pain is still there? WHY? Simple,
you’re not relaxed enough! Relax more and slowly the pain will subside…
But what am I to do in the
meantime? Be an invalid? NO! But consider:
1.
Brush
using your left hand instead
2.
Type
using your other fingers and let the smartphone rest on the table instead of
holding it up.
3.
Must
you use your wrist to sweep? Use your entire body, shoulder, biceps, elbows and
forearms to sweep the floor? Why use the weakest part of your arm to sweep the
floor?
4.
Lifting
the mug to drink? Again, why not use your forearm and biceps to lift the darn
mug. And get a lighter mug while you’re at it!
5.
Etc.
etc. etc.? A little awareness in changing your lifestyle will go a long way.
Is this Yiquan in practice? In
a way, it really is.