by Tarandus » Mon Jan 15, 2007 12:43 pm
James: I have had a similar problem to this at times, in the same place, at the top of the back, between the shoulder blades. I can only offer my personal experience in dealing with it, which admittedly probably won't be much use, as every individual after all is different, we both practise different forms (I do the long Yang Cheng Fu form), and of course I don't know what else in your case might have caused the problem apart from Tai Chi: so there are of course really too many variables in the equation to be able to offer any real practical assistance and I can therefore only offer my own personal experience under probably very different circumstances. Firstly, the hypothesis that it may be Tai Chi that is causing the problem might not be correct. It may be that what has happened is that you have suffered a repetitive strain injury doing something else, such as sitting at a computer terminal too long with incorrect posture or incorrect back support. But even if that is the case, obviously nevertheless, the Tai Chi is exacerbating the problem, and Chi Kung isn't helping either. To revert to my own experience of the problem, as I've said, I too have experienced the same sense of pain and strain right between the shoulder blades while practising and it has gone away after practice, only to return again at the next practice session. I also felt it more while practising the sword form than the barehand form. In my own case, I just tried to go back to really fundamental Tai Chi principles, focus on those and hope that in doing so, the problem would disappear. I am happy to say that it did, and quite soon. I was particularly aware of the need, given the position of the strain, to focus on relaxing . Yang Cheng Fu constantly stressed to his students that they should 'Relax, relax, relax'. In particular, in his 'Ten Essentials of Taijiquan', his fifth point is as follows: 'Keep you shoulder in a neutral, relaxed position. If you lift your shoulders, the Chi will rise with them, and the whole body will be without strength. You should also keep the elbows down, otherwise you will not be able to keep you shoulders relaxed and move your body with ease'. Taking this into account, I would suggest that perhaps -perhaps- the problem in your case might be that your shoulders are too tense during practice and this is causing a) a mild repetitive strain injury between your shoulders and b) causing your Chi to rise too much and become blocked in the place that is causing you discomfort. This was certainly the diagnosis in my own case. As soon as I really focused on a return to this fundamental principle, the problem disappeared within a few days. I have been corrected also in my time by the Chinese GrandMaster I studied with in London for having too much tension in my shoulders during Wave Hands Like Clouds, so I focused even more of course on relaxing them during that movement in my form practice. I hope your difficulty resolves soon. Kind regards, T,