We touched on an exercise last week that I personally find wonderful for opening the shoulders. The feedback was so good that I decided we needed to explore deeper levels of this shoulder exercise series in this week's classes. That made for a very interesting week.
Stretching effectively...
In my many years of martial training, I have been shown SO MANY way to stretch my body. Do you do it before or after a workout? Both you say? I heard a new study showed that stretching did not do any good! Do you push hard into pain to get that "deep stretch" Do you throw your body around violently? Is 15 minutes a day enough? I heard that professional hockey goalies (known for their flexibility) have a minimum of 1 hour, daily stretch routine to keep themselves limber.
Personally, I think that the amount of stretching one does depends greatly on what they are involved in on a daily basis. What does your body need? For many of my students, the needs are relatively simple; range of motion without pain. So let me focus attention there. If you want to read a bit more detail about flexibility training please, CLICK HERE
Pain, tightness and shoulders...
The tightness we feel in our shoulders typically comes from several factors. Stress, over working the area, poor posture and pain. I want to break these out and explore them individually.
Stress - The best "Western minded" description of stress I have ever heard goes like this - Stress: Suppressing that uncontrollable urge to choke the "living &%*#" out of someone who really deserves it!
In our culture, we hold a lot of things in, repressing our true feelings, attaching deep emotion to other people's actions (road rage is one example), feeling overwhelmed, you name it, "&%it happens". This tension tends to reside in the upper back, neck and shoulders. A couple of students asked me this week if massage therapy can help with this situation. The answer is Yes and No. (Roll your eyes here) Yes it can give you some immediate release and a sense of relaxed, calm but unless you change the environment / attitudes / issues that made you so tense in the first place, massage is a short term (band-aid) on a long term (chronic) problem.
Suggestion: Become aware of the things in your life that cause you to feel tense, stressed, helpless. Look for ways to minimize their affect on you. (This does not include buying a baseball bat!) After all, it is completely your choice as to how something or someone affects you. Here is link to an article I did on Clutter.
Over working the area - Some of my students have jobs that cause them to work their neck and shoulder area very hard, all day long. This most often leads to muscle fatigue, poor circulation through the affected area and restricted range of motion; typically with localized pain and tightness. For these students it is even more important to begin the process of releasing tension, opening the joints and increasing circulation through the affected neck and shoulder area.
Suggestions: Treatments of moist heat, massage and most importantly becoming aware of and trying to modify how you use your upper body during your work day are very effective for supporting the healing process.
Poor Posture - This is a biggie! All of us have bouts of poor posture; some more often than others. When I ask (especially new) students to stand up in good posture, more often than not, they use their shoulder muscles to help hold up their upper body. In Tai Chi training, we are taught to develop and use our deep spinal muscles to hold the upper body allowing the shoulders to sink down and away in a relaxed manner. (Supporting the Sky) Without these deep spinal muscles being strong enough, the shoulders will stay involved to protect the spine. This can lead to severe blockages in the upper spine and shoulder area and can cause Postural Kyphosis (Dowager's Hump).
Suggestion: Fayne and I have a signal we use to help each other remember to be in good posture. If one of us sees the other slumping the other will come up and GENTLY rub the area that needs positive, postural attention. This non-verbal tool is a very effective and loving way to become more aware of your posture. If you are slouching alone, then listen to your body, it will (at first) gently tell you that you are slouching and then it will start to complain more feverently with aches, spasms and even pinched nerves if you a really choosing to ignore its signals. Become more aware of the postures you favor in your daily routines and work to make them more balanced and stable. you will most likely not be comfortable at first but in a short time your strength will improve and your new posture will be come more comfortable than your old posture.
Shoulder, neck and upper back pain - Each of the above conditions often cause levels of tightness, discomfort and/or pain. Pain increases the tightness in the affected area; if a joint is involved that often leads to restricted range of motion and decreased circulation. When dealing with pain, your body is telling you there is some sort of imbalance in your body. Beit physical, mental or spiritual in nature, the imbalance and resulting pain are very real. In our Tai Chi training we work to identify the imbalances and work with students to resolve them, permanently if at all possible. There are no short cuts or magic pills here, just a dedication to making your body stable, strong and healthy.
Opening the shoulder exercise...
It is very hard to describe an exercise in words and have it translate into something you can use but I will try. For this exercise to work several things have to be in place.
1) A strong focus to your spinal "Supporting the Sky" posture.
2) Deep, relaxed breathing
3) Mental Concentration and visualization
4) Patience
I know, that last one probably ruled out most of you but try it anyway. ;-)
It is VERY important to warm up your upper body with some gentle Qigong exercises BEFORE attempting this training set. In addition, some students felt light headed, nauseous and a bit weak in the knees while working this exercise set. This is mainly due to the stirring and possible opening of blocked channels of energy so pace yourself and take it as slow as you need to.
Get into a soft kneed, strong stance with feet parallel and hip width apart. Place you hands by your side (at your pant seam) with palms facing forward, arms and fingers are extended but not tight, just fully extended. (Do not use force to extend your arms and fingers) Begin your deep, relaxed breathing and start focusing your attention to sinking the shoulders down and away from the spine. Make the spine fully responsible for supporting the upper body, let the shoulders sink down and away from the spine while exhaling. (One student said it felt as if she was trying to gently make her arms longer) Once you are able to feel the shoulders release, take a deep breath and, while exhaling, move your hands up about an inch. Keeping the hands by your sides, palms facing forward. Settle in, relax and begin the process of releasing the shoulders again. ONLY once you feel the release can you move up another inch while exhaling. Continue this until you feel you can no longer be relaxed or if you start to feel any pain. Discomfort in this exercise is common, especially if you are tight in the shoulder area already, but do not create pain as this will set you back instead of moving you forward. Once you have had enough, soften the elbows and move your hands into center and down the body. Take at least two or three deep, relaxed breaths before you stop altogether.
Some students felt tingling sensations in their fingertips and hands, a few felt it into the arms and some felt nothing. It depends on how tight you are to start, how well you can manage your shoulder muscle relaxation, how strong your spinal muscles are and how well you can visualize that sinking energy. At higher levels the tingling will fill the arms from finger tips to shoulders and typically speed up until the point where it fades away and is replaced by calm, warmth. This means the channels have been opened. The more you practice this exercise, the easier it will be to open the shoulders. In my training, I have noticed that some days they open easily and on others they may not open at all or very little. All of the things mentioned above can play a part in how well you can perform this shoulder opening exercise.
As always, Smiling from the Heart helps a lot.
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