Treating frayed tendon in shoulder with chi kung (tendonosis)

[ErykSD]

Hello all,

I am trying to treat my shoulder with qi gong, as so far 9 months of physical therapy 5x a week combined with acupunture (bi weekly though recently I've been going once a week) have only proved moderately successful. -- My pain has lowered from about 5/10 to about 2 or 3/10.

My injury started from lifting weights with improper technique, and it's been 2 years since I had to stop almost all forms of exercise so as not to aggravate the shoulder.

The pain lowering to 2/10 is pretty good, but as soon as I do any physical activity such as lifting anything overhead the pain comes back, the pain returns, usually for a week or more.

My physical therapist recently suggested surgery, and as I'm only 25, I am going to try all alternative methods to cure my injury.



My question to everyone here is: where should I look / what exercises should I start doing to heal my injury? I live in San Diego and am willing to attend sessions / a school to learn.

[David Langford]

http://www.shaolin.org/general/instructors-list.html

I hope you find a good teacher.

[ErykSD]

Thanks David, I already contacted Anthony the instructor up in Vegas, he is the closest to me. He told me to buy his book, which I am
waiting for in the mail, but I wanted to come on here to ask anyone if they have any input on exersizes to do with my shoulder, or have advice to share.

Any input is appreciated,

Thank you

[Mark A]

Surgery

Dear Eryskd,
Again these things all need to be assessed so I can only really give you a general answer.

If your physical therapy is suggesting Surgery then I would need to know the reasons why.

Also if you have been at this two years what has you Physical therapist done for you.

Ok the first thing I would ask is are you satisfied with you physical therapist? Do you feel they have done enough? Have they done any bodywork on you or has it all been exercise based?

Have you had any medical investigation such as MRI, Xrays etc

Is it definetly soft tissue? and not the joint being out of place?

Also who is giving you acupuncture? Are they using the Chinese Medicine Model or are they just using western acupuncture?

These are all important questions to ask. Most soft tissue normally resolves itself after six months. But Shoulder injurues can be tricky due to the complex network of soft tissue.

What i would reccomend is that you find a good Tui Na practitioner( I am one, so check out my equilibrium website for a better explanation)

Tui Na is the chinese physical therapy aspect of TCM and is exellent for muscle skeletal conditions more so than acupuncture( in my opinion) As it is a hands and starts to work away adhesions in the soft tissue etc

Or a good body worker who has an exellent reputation and has success in getting people better.

Ask around you are an athlete so go to someone you trust.

Peace

Mark

[Maxime]

My physical therapist recently suggested surgery, and as I'm only 25, I am going to try all alternative methods to cure my injury.

Your physical therapist suggesting surgery on a 25 years old man is shocking. It also shows -in my opinion- his current level and limitations. I agree with you, you can try alternative methods.

Genuine Chi Kung can dramatically improves your condition. As it is chronic and with a possible deep blockage of energy, you should also try to find a REAL Chinese Medicine healer.

I agree with Sifu Mark regarding the Tuina efficiency, and I also recommand genuine acupuncture treatment, which might relieve the energy blockage in a few cessions only.

If Chi Kung, Tuina and/or acupuncture doesn't work for you, then don't blame those systems (who are excellent), but blame the low level healers.

All the best,

[Luo Lang]

Dear ErykSD,
I am sorry to hear about your shoulder pain! Improving from 5/10 to 2/3/10 is regarding the Borg scale quite remarkable already!

The shoulder from physical orthopedic point of view is stabalised mainly my muscles from the rotator craff. There are not so many passive structures which stabalise. Well it's well known that with lot's of weight lifting some active or passive stuctures will be injured or affected! Espacially if you work on your front part with lots of weights which means getting a stronger pectoral muscle. The pressure in this small area will get enormous. Also if you try to push up your trapacius pasr descendens. The preassure under the subacromion is enormeous.

It's hard to tell what is affected. It's hard to tell it without a proper observation. It may be the capsula or a bursa or a ligament a sinew or a muscle or a fascia of it. And there are many of it. It may also be another coonecting tissue. From medical point of view as a trained physical therapist it should be elabotated by isometric tests, provocative tests, and passive tests.

The good thing is: chi kung doesn't care about what is injuried. Why? Basically all problems are a ying/yang dysharmony or a energetic blockage and it doesn't matter if it's physical emotional or even mental.

If it's a physical injuruy and you are able to restore the energy flow to clear the blockage and funnily all meridians travell their way on this tissues to carry the chi, the life force, which will clear the blockage, then the pain will disappear.

May suggestion is to wait for some time and search on and find hopefully a Chi Kung Master ot a very good Master in Chinese Medicin. You can do surgery if it's not possible to get a realse later on that's my observation.

I have greatest respect for surgery, well in my time as a therapist I met some of the Greatest in their specialisation of joints. But even those Masters say nowadays if you can manage it without it's better.

There are excellent Masters in the U.S.A.:
Sifu Anthony Korahais: http://flowingzen.com/index.html
Sifu Anthony Spinicchia: http://www.eliteqigong.com/

Best regards,
Roland

[ErykSD]

Thanks Mark for the reply, I really appreciate it. To answer your questions:


Also if you have been at this two years what has you Physical therapist done for you.
- I've had the injury two years but physical therapy and acupuncture for 10 months.

- The physical therapist would mainly coach me on the exercises he gave me to make sure I was doing them right. The exercises helped to reduce and maintain the pain level, but after 10 months of me doing daily exercises 5x a week, my muscles supporting my shoulder got a bit stronger, but the pain is still there.

Ok the first thing I would ask is are you satisfied with you physical therapist? Do you feel they have done enough? Have they done any bodywork on you or has it all been exercise based?
- I'm sort of satisfied... It's through my HMO so you can't expect 5 star treatment, but he tried. There was very limited bodywork, maybe just 2 or 3 brief sessions over those 10 months.

Have you had any medical investigation such as MRI, Xrays etc
- Yes, I've had an MRI which indicated a frayed tendon in the shoulder. When I get home I'll look it up to see if I can get more detail.
- The PT said the next step would be to get another MRI, the one where they inject a dye into my shoulder so that more will show up in the MRI

Is it definetly soft tissue? and not the joint being out of place?
- Maybe both. My right shoulder definitely droops forward, so my body is definitely misaligned. Hunching over my whole life kind of contributed to that. Within the last 3 years I've been trying to correct it, but something is keeping it tightly forward.

Also who is giving you acupuncture? Are they using the Chinese Medicine Model or are they just using western acupuncture?
Acusport here in San Diego. My acupuncturist has shown me Chinese acupuncture material and talked about how she uses the Chinese principles, so I know she either uses the Chinese one, or a combnation of the two.

[Mbyte]

I'm not sure what you have... is your tendon actually torn or is it just swollen? I wouldn't even consider doing any strength training or exercise unless that pain has fully gone. I have had tendonitis three times now (not torn just inflamation), one under the kneecap, one in the sole of my heel and one in my shoulder (the typical bodybuilder one, where the pec meets the shoulder). I'm only 22. I havn't practicied Chi Kung in about a year. I'm the hight of laziness. Each one of those lasted about 10 -11 months. I've had a reacurring long term problems since I was 18. The knee problem was my fault, shoulder one was my fault too but it more unlucky than my fault. The heel one was caused by simply walking... It's the worst of all because walking would make it worse. I had to have a cruch for weeks and it would cause pain while doing chi kung (because I'm standing on it)

Unless that pain is fully gone you should be no where near a weight. You simply have to wait it out until that pain is gone. You can't reabilitate something that can only be fixed by the healing rate of your body. You reabilitate after the injury has healed. You just have to wait it out. You're not going to improve or help it by strength training. I had to wait it out three times. This injury is like a chinese finger trap the more you give in to the fact that you are injured and you should rest the faster you'll get out of your predicament.