A flat back... I have one.
At this year's successful seminar series, in which I was glad to participate in two tour stops, it was made literally painfully clear to me that I have an overly flat upper back, and that I am to work hard to correct this issue.
The problem was discovered while we trained Phoenix System shocking strikes, or perhaps more accurately, the problem was made very clear at that point. Jinbao watched me training the strikes and noticed, not actually for the first time, that my back is still too flat between my shoulder blades. Upon request, I arched it out as far as it would go and achieved a shape evidently not unlike a table top. Not good.
At this point in the story, it's probably appropriate to remind others of something I remember clearly every time I think about this story, which is daily. At one point reading something about Yin Style, most likely one of the highly informative articles on the Yin Style Baguazhang homepage, I recall Jinbao mentioning that for him, training the Phoenix System was a long, slow, and painful transformation of his body that now allows him to do things that he couldn't before and that aren't exactly normal, though they're neither impossible nor magical nor unique to folks who train.
So it is with my back. I got a prescription, which slowly seems to be helping, to turn in a posture I'd never seen that isn't one of the eight animal postures, and I got a handful of strikes to train that should stretch that area out. Dutifully, I've been doing those things, both nearly every day, and though I'm thankful for the guidance, those things suck to do.
The changes are small so far and, in fact, hardly to be noticed. Something is definitely going on, though, since I wake up almost every morning remarkably sore in between my shoulder blades but without the stiffness that usually comes with soreness, like I'm stretching it out and slowly getting somewhere.
Keep in mind, then, that when you train, you're looking for slow transformations that take place over time and that, in all likelihood, involve being uncomfortable. Another something I remember hearing at some point along those lines is that "when we train, we make ourselves uncomfortable so that when we go to use it, we can make our opponent more uncomfortable."
3 comments:
Hi, Jim
I have had this same problem for a while now. If I practice hard, I will feel sore between my shoulder blade. It would sore to the point that sometime I would have hard time going to sleep. Sometime I even wake up from my sleep because of the soreness. It felt like I stretched that group of muscle too hard and it's torn.
My solution was discovered when I watch Andrew's Daoyin video. He mentioned a drummer who has a heart problem. According to Andrew, the drummer damaged a muscle right behind his heart between the shoulder blade because he over worked the muscle from drumming motion. Afterward, Andrew recommended the drummer to use the "HA" sound exercise to fix this problem. I tried it and it worked for me. I think my pain is 80% gone. Tried it, you might like it ^^
Ray
Thanks for your comment, Ray!
I'm not 100% sure that you and I have the same issue since pain, particularly of a torn-muscle type, isn't normally part of what I experience. I simply have reduced flexibility in my upper thoracic spine and am working to increase that, apparently with some slow success so far.
As for your pain, first I'm glad the Daoyin and healing sound treatment seems to be helping you, but I suspect that you have probably accrued some trigger point issues in some of the musculature of your upper back, most likely in your rhomboids or middle trapezius muscles. Those can be treated effectively with great success by a qualified massage therapist or by treating the area yourself with a tennis ball in a sock against a wall (email me directly for instructions, if you want to).
If indeed trigger points are the root of your problem, then the treatment will be uncomfortable and quickly effective, and you'll also find that you easily reinjure the area until you treat them. Once the trigger points have been treated, it will not become aggravated so easily, although staying on top of it with a tennis ball will be helpful and probably necessary (since training hard can aggravate those muscles). Warm, moist heat with stretching can help, but stretching often makes trigger points worse. Try stretching out while the hot water in your shower beats on your back, if you can, but not so much at other times.
Thanks for the tips, though, and best of luck with this one!
Another way I've heard that saying summed up (and you've probably heard it too): "We sweat now so we don't bleed later." :)
Happy training,
Ryan
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