Health Blog by YinTeing

A friend of mine recently went for Acu cupping  treatment, a traditional Chinese treatment whereby certain meridian points and energy gateway of the body are activated.  Usually, it is believe that the dampness and wind are trapped in certain part of your body, blocking good chi and energy flow- and also bring about pain, especially during winter, when caught in the rain or in cold weather. The pain due to “wind dampness” does not show up in scans and x-rays and the usual conventional treatment is to give the patient painkillers.

Though I believe that another cause of pain could be muscle imbalance- having blocked energy, chi or meridian flow may also cause the pain.

After the treatment, my friend’s back looked horrible. But he told me that the lower back pain that had been bothering him for quite a while due to his past habit of bathing at night/after gym and taking cold drinks are now gone. He has felt much better.

My friend has been very kind- he has allowed me permission to use the photo if it could benefit others.

I know the do-it-yourself acu-cupping equipment can be bought commercially- consisting of a glass cup, sterile needles and suction equipment. But I do not suggest that you do it yourself because you may not know the correct point to poke the needle- and many people cannot bring themselves to poke their body with a needle.

As usual, you need to know that all forms of traditional treatment are usually all inclusive- that means you usually have to watch your food intake. There are certain forbidden food that will reduce the effectiveness of the treatment and certain food that you need to take more. Also you may have to make some lifestyle adjustment such as not bathing at night.

This is continuation from a previous published post on How to Overcome Shoulder & Lower Back Soreness When Travelling .

4.  Shoulder stretch- very good to relief tension in the shoulders and back area. I always do this exercise. (click HERE to view the picture from another site)

It gets more effective when done with a resistance/exercise band (holding the band with both hands shoulder width apart)

5. Another standing shoulder and arms stretch (click HERE to view the picture from another site)

 6. Shoulder stretching using exercise bands (click HERE to view the picture from another site)

   7. Child’s pose

8. Spinal roll – with this pose, slowly, in a rocking motion, roll yourself to left and right. It removes the tension and pressure on the spine.

Click HERE to view the image from another site.

9. Spinal balances (click HERE to see the image from another site)

This is an effective exercise for lower back stiffness but need to be done correctly. The back has to be in an almost straight line- most people have the tendency to curve their backs upwards- this can hurt the lower back. Tuck in the tail bone when doing this exercise. As this exercise also involves balance, do it slowly if you are new- slowly raise your hand and the opposite leg, then lower down and continue on the other side.

 10. Lateral stretch left and right with exercise band- make sure you tuck in your tailbone and keep the lower back straight when doing this. (click HERE to see the image from another site)

Hope the above stretches help you relieve some stiffness. Please don’t do stretches on cold muscles.

Lower back pain/ soreness is quite common during travelling especially if the traveller does a lot of walking, carting their heavy backpacks with them. It brings a lot of discomfort as the muscle soreness prevents a good night’s sleep, decrease enjoyment and may slow down the travel. Most of the time, travellers who want a quick fix will douse themselves in painkillers.

Before resorting to pain killers, here are the following mini tools that I bring along during travels to ensure the well-being of my back:

• Exercise band
• Guadsa board

Now you would think how would both the items above help to relieve back pain?

Lower back pain is likely caused by tight hamstrings and/or tight hip flexors and/or erector spinae (spine muscles). Stretching can do wonders to relieve the ache of your body- when your muscles are tight, you gently stretch to loosen them. For a more useful guide, please read my previous post on Overcoming Lower Back Pain.

Even though you may normally do yoga or stretching exercises in your gym, once you are out there travelling, you will no longer be stretching those muscles. After a while, your muscles will become tight. When you attempt to stretch your tired hamstring muscles after a long day’s of walk, you will find it much easier to stretch using an exercise band as it will help you stretch easier.

Stretches you can do (click on the link to view the pictures):

1.  Hamstring stretches . You can do it either standing or sitting

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When doing body weight exercises, how do you perform them? Do you utilize the muscles on your glutes, legs and arms (biceps, triceps) or do you engage your core muscles?

It is important that you train and develop your core before doing intensive body work exercise like leg pulls and chin ups. If you have weak or undeveloped core muscles, there is no more to support your exercises. And for those neglect their core, they would constantly suffer body aches (all over- limbs, shoulders, etc) and lower back pain.

How to develop core muscles

Core muscles are best developed and strengthened using tools that trigger an unstable environment. Helpful tools are like the balance board, stability/physio/exercise ball, medicine ball and the BOSU ball. If you are new to this, always get the help of a trainer or attend a class- that will help you to do it using the right technique.

A lot of people make the mistake of trying to overdo core based exercises in the wrong posture- by curling their lower backs as they strained to do these exercises….and end up with pains or injuries. But it is worth learning PROPER  techniques because when you have a good core strength, you will do a lot of exercises in the right posture and form and drastically lower your risk to injuries.

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If you suffer from joint pains (especially during cold weather), or any form of arthritis (such as osteoarthritis), TCM doctors would generally tell you to avoid these foods/drinks:

1. Coconut water

Coconut water

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A few years ago, a friend of mine who was learning yoga suffered a slip disk. As the result of that, she had to go for an immediate operation and after that, she developed a phobia for exercises, particularly yoga.

At the same time, I have previously learned yoga from Dr Dhilip Kumar- who shared a very inspirational real life story of his. He suffered an accident and was told that he could never walk again. Determined, he went to India to study yoga under the masters there and uses ayurveda- the ancient art of healing to heal himself. It took 5 years and today, by looking at him and the strength and energy that seemed to shine forth from him, you would have no idea of his previous health problem. I’ve also heard other stories from those who have benefited from yoga- at least, the exercise calms a person’s mind down.

Location: Centrapoint, Bandar Utama. Tel: 03- 7726 9689

Recently, I met the CEO of Fitness Network, a neighborhood based gym in Bandar Utama, Dr Lingeshwaran Pillai or otherwise known as Dr Lingam. Dr Lingam holds a phD in yogic science and teaches yoga as well advocate proper breathing and nutrition. I took the opportunity to relay my friend’s bad experience to Dr Lingam and ask him for his opinion on the matter.

According to Dr Lingam, an inactive person who is much overweight should not begin doing yoga exercises immediately- like those of the sun salutation and other form of exercises straight away. He recommended the following:

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Once, I tried to be a hero and attempted to carry a heavy box containing lots of documents. The box was very heavy-  and at a sudden jerk movement, I lifted the box up- without following the normal precautions like bending my knees or lifting it gradually.

Immediately, I felt a slight discomfort on my lower back. Oops, I could feel problems coming. This time I got off light because I’ve always incorporate exercises to build my core strength and do a lot of stretching. As the discomfort came, I quickly did some stretching for my lower back and shoulders. The next day, when doing push ups on a ball, I could sense my left wrist hurting a little.

The pain on the wrist got a bit more- it felt like a mild syndrome of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.  However, we need to be aware that it is not always that the pain on the spot indicate the problem occurs there. It can easily be referred pain. For wrist pain, it is common that the cause of the pain originates from the shoulders and not the wrist itself.

Initially I have tried stretching my wrists but found no relief. This made me address the cause as originating from my shoulders. I did a number of stretches to relax my shoulders and after a few hours, the pain was gone.

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I am not sure about others but I used to suffer from knee pain on the days I was overweight. Another reason was because I could not give up iced drinks then. So, I bought expensive shoes that are said to be designed for user comfort and worth the price to be paid for. There are brands like Snowfly, Clarks, Hush Puppies, Scholl- with the shoes costing in the rage of RM150 to RM300 plus (up to almost USD100 a pair).

Due my way of walking that causes unnatural distribution of weight, coupled with the lack of lady-like way I normally walk, my expensive shoes generally become almost unwearable after about 3 months. So every 3 months or so, I have to fork out another few hundred bucks for yet another pair of expensive shoes. I also paid a few hundred for specially designed orthotics, shoes that are designed to take into account of the arch on my feet. Those days were okay- I led a highly stressed job that paid well. My circle of friends, a number of them who also suffered from knee pain also invested heavily in shoes- in fact, it was through them that I knew which brands to buy. 

Crocs- expensive but many claimed is comfortable

But these shoes did nothing much to reduce the knee discomfort. Still, I had placed my trust in the perceived value- after all, if it is expensive, it should be good. I’ve never looked beyond anything inexpensive. 

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