TCA students perform at the Chinese New Year festivities
Tai Chi Australia was very pleased to be invited to participate in the Chinese New Year Celebrations in Chinatown last Sunday. See photos of students performing and the Millenium Dragon.
Australia Day Celebrations Bring the Crowds
Tai Chi Australia was very proud to provide a day of demonstrations and activities at this year’s RACV Australia Day Picnic in King’s Domain Gardens, Melbourne.
Tai Chi for RSI
Sunday Life 31/1/10
What’s the alternative?
Each week, our team of alternative health experts answer your questions.
By Caitlin Chang.
I’ve been suffering from RSI and my doctor has suggested trying massage as an additional treatment. How can it help?
Jonathan Hanlon, Chinese medicine practitioner, says: Repetitive strain injury – RSI – is an occupational injury that happens through either a repetitive action or doing an action incorrectly. It usually occurs in the arm or the shoulder and the most common symptom is pain, which can be characterised by either an aching feeling or a burning or shooting pain. Some RSI sufferers can also experience numbness or a mild tremor. Combined, these symptoms can make tasks where you grip and turn things, such as opening doors, difficult.
There’s also some debate about whether RSI is an inflammatory condition or if it’s caused by soft tissue damage. I tend to find it’s soft tissue damage. The repetitive movement causes low-level but repeated trauma to the muscles, which can lead to tiny tears and internal scarring on your muscles.
As a Chinese medicine practitioner, I look at the flow of energy in the body. With RSI, the repetitive movement disrupts the way energy flows through your body. If you have areas of the body that are not getting enough energy, they become weak, and if you have areas where the energy can’t flow through, and there’s too much pressure in the area, it causes pain and stiffness.
It’s important you rest from any activity that causes you pain. From a work perspective, it often means you need to change the way you do your job and take frequent breaks. Your occupational health and safety officer can offer strategies to help with this, such as making sure your desk is in the right ergonomic position or that you use an ergonomic mouse.
Massage can also be used to treat RSI and if your pain is not too bad, you can try this yourself. I recommend using Tiger Balm ointment. Massage this into the area that is sore and the surrounding tissue. Tiger Balm comes in two varieties, white and red. If your pain from your RSI is a burning feeling, use the white balm. If it’s not burning, use the red balm, which is a lot stronger and quite hot. Many sufferers also benefit from yoga and tai chi but let your instructor know that you have an RSI problem first.
Email your questions to sundaylifemail@fairfaxmedia.com.au. This column provides an alternative health view only. Please do not disregard seeing your GP for any condition mentioned.
Tai Chi helps stroke patients
The Australian Women’s Weekly
Pamela Allardice
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Topics: Stroke
In a study published in Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair, Hong Kong researchers have discovered that tai chi can significantly improve quality of life in survivors of stroke.
Stroke victims are often left with balancing problems which may not be addressed by conventional physiotherapy.
However, the particular skills taught in tai chi — especially the ability to maintain balance while shifting weight and leaning in different directions — was shown to be of special benefit in helping these people face real-life challenges, such as standing in a bus or coordinating head, torso and limb movements while reaching for an item in the supermarket.
As a bonus, tai chi classes cost less than conventional physiotherapy and provide an opportunity for social interaction.
For more details of the research please go to read the Abstract from the Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair.
Another Reason for doing Tai Chi
Researchers from the Mayo Clinic have uncovered a new physiological reason why for some suffers, arthritic knee pain might not be so bad. Dr Shreyasee Amin and her team followed 265 arthritis sufferers for 30 months, and monitored their quadriceps strength against cartilage loss. The people with good quadriceps strength (top third of the group) showed a 60 percent lower risk of losing cartilage, had less knee pain and better physical function.
We all know that correct practice of Tai Chi should help to develop and strengthen your quadriceps (those muscles that run down the front of your leg from your hip to your knee). Now there is even more reason to sink down in to a horse stance!
Dr Amin did go on to say “Having a qualified physician or therapist work with you is important for you to do the exercises correctly and so you don’t injure yourself in other ways.” At Tai Chi Australia we always encourage you to consult your doctor or specialist before starting Tai Chi and never to do anything that hurts or feels uncomfortable. If you want to develop your quadriceps and help combat arthritic knee pain, please talk to your instructor at your next class.
The Margaret Young Place
Margaret was known to thousands of Tasmanians as the person who gave Tasmanians Yoga and Tai Chi. Margaret Young Place is an outdoor rest and exercise area at Ockerby Gardens adjoining Launceston General Hospital. It will be a great place for rehabilitation patients, other inpatients and their visitors at the hospital to sit and get some fresh air.
