Share your rehabilitative martial arts experiences with Clawmarks!

[tigerclawmarks]

Hello, martial artists! My name is L. Ashley Susong, and I am the Assistant Editor for ClawMarks. ClawMarks is a nationally distributed quarterly newsletter from Tiger Claw (http://www.tigerclaw.com). We have a readership of over 20,000 martial arts schools and stores, and we need your help for our Fall 2007 issue.

For this issue, we are concentrating on the healing powers of martial arts training. We are looking to you, our community members, to share firsthand how martial arts training helped you recover from or cope with a serious injury, terminal illness or other physical or mental disabilities or obstacles.

If you could, please either post a reply here or send a short (250 word maximum) essay to tigerclawmarks@gmail.com before 7 p.m. EST before next Wednesday, 27 June 2007. We ask that you include your full name, mailing address and contact information. If you have high resolution pictures, it would also help us tremendously! All authors of accepted submissions will receive complimentary copies to ClawMarks to share with his or her friends and family!

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email me at the above address. I look forward to reading about your journeys.

Namaste,
Ashley.

[RD'S Alias - 1A]

OMG!!! Someone is actually ASKING me how I healed my back!!!! :p

Give me some time, I will put together a timeline, and training methods used.

[Becca]

She, said short essey not feature length article.:eek:;)

[bakxierboxer]

OMG!!! Someone is actually ASKING me how I healed my back!!!! :p

Give me some time, I will put together a timeline, and training methods used.

Ummm.... I think he said "in 250 words" (or less)........

[bakxierboxer]

She, said short essey not feature length article.:eek:;)

What's an "Ashley"?
'Zat different than an "Ashleigh"?

(yeah, FWIW, it is different)

[SevenStar]

OMG!!! Someone is actually ASKING me how I healed my back!!!! :p

Give me some time, I will put together a timeline, and training methods used.

ROFL, it's a good thing she didn't ask how you hurt it in the first place...:D:p

[RD'S Alias - 1A]

Well, see it went like this.... :D

[GeneChing]

...but she's not from Russia so don't get any ideas, RD.

[NJM]

Small Bell Qigong allowed me to overcome chronic sinus problems. That's really all there is to the story. :P

[Oso]

Small Bell Qigong allowed me to overcome chronic sinus problems. That's really all there is to the story. :P

is there a decent vid to SBQ?




...RD would have to come up with 250 correctly spelled words for starters...

[NJM]

is there a decent vid to SBQ?



Not that I've ever heard of.

[RD'S Alias - 1A]

...RD would have to come up with 250 correctly spelled words for starters...

Reply]
Over my Dead Body!!!! :D

[Oso]

NJM, thanks...guess I'll keep on doing yi jin jing...


RD, when are you going to learn how to just use the 'quote' button at the bottom of the screen??????

[NJM]

RD, when are you going to learn how to just use the 'quote' button at the bottom of the screen??????[/QUOTE]

or just the
prefix and suffix!

[boshea]

Hello, martial artists! My name is L. Ashley Susong, and I am the Assistant Editor for ClawMarks. ClawMarks is a nationally distributed quarterly newsletter from Tiger Claw (http://www.tigerclaw.com). We have a readership of over 20,000 martial arts schools and stores, and we need your help for our Fall 2007 issue.

For this issue, we are concentrating on the healing powers of martial arts training. We are looking to you, our community members, to share firsthand how martial arts training helped you recover from or cope with a serious injury, terminal illness or other physical or mental disabilities or obstacles.

If you could, please either post a reply here or send a short (250 word maximum) essay to tigerclawmarks@gmail.com before 7 p.m. EST before next Wednesday, 27 June 2007. We ask that you include your full name, mailing address and contact information. If you have high resolution pictures, it would also help us tremendously! All authors of accepted submissions will receive complimentary copies to ClawMarks to share with his or her friends and family!

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email me at the above address. I look forward to reading about your journeys.

Namaste,
Ashley.

Hello Ashley,

I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for, so let me know if it is and I'll send more information.

In 2001 I tore my ACL playing soccer. Prior to the injury I had been practicing Northern Shaolin Kung Fu for a little over a year, which I clearly had to stop at that point. I had ACL reconstructive surgery, and my doctor said that a full recovery would take between 6 to 12 months.

After three months of physical therapy prescribed by my doctor, I asked him if he thought it would be safe to start practicing Tai Chi. He said that it would be fine, so I enrolled in a Tai Chi class at the Kung Fu school where I had been practicing before. I practiced for about six months. I can't say that it miraculously accelerated my recovery beyond the doctors' expectations, but I can say that it helped to strengthen the muscles around the knee joint, and helped to keep my flexibility up. It was also sufficiently low-impact to be safe.

One year after my surgery I felt like I was ready to return to the Northern Shaolin class, so I gave it a try and it was fine. My knee will probably never be quite 100%, but it is much better. I practiced Northern Shaolin for another three years, as well as returning to Tai Chi for a few months, with no major health problems. I have since started practicing Muay Thai at a different school and am loving it.

I don't know if pictures will be of any use to you. All I have are the gory photos of the inside of my knee joint during the surgery, and I could probably take a picture of the knee today; there is only a faint scar visible.

[boshea]

RD, when are you going to learn how to just use the 'quote' button at the bottom of the screen??????

or just the
prefix and suffix!

[/QUOTE]

Your QUOTE-Fu is very strong, NJM.

[SoCo KungFu]

This isn't a miraculous story or anything...but here goes.

I have always been athletic. My family growing up wasn't exactly the wealthiest. I didn't really have video games or anything. Just a football, a basketball and some friends to throw around :) So I've always been into sports.

Well even though I was always active. I still was not the healthiest. I would often get sick. Usually it would be twice a year, around the change between winter to spring and also summer to fall. Basically it was always the same. It would start a cold. Then turn to bronchitis and then pneumonia. Every year, twice a year. I just got used to it. It had to be genetic. My Grandfather and father also had such problems, they were Native American if that has anything to do with it...Also, and I never told doctors about this... I used to have chest pains. Usually it would be really acute, typically if I moved suddenly or sometimes if I inhaled deep and sharply. It would be a sharp pain. But of course always wanting to play sports, I never brought it up because I didn't want to be forced to sit the bench. I was the type that would duct tape up my broken fingers so I could go in next play :D

Well when I turned 16 and got my first job. The very first paycheck, I went to the only kung fu school in town and signed up. I had always wanted to do martial arts since I could remember. Just never had the money. Sifu was pretty hard on me back then. He pushed me a lot harder than any of the other students. I fell in love the first night and never looked back.

I still got sick that year. It was in Febuary and 2 months into my kung fu. I got real sick. I told sifu and he said that if I wanted to work out then to come but I should really not be stressing myself. I had like a 101 or 102 fever (my average core temp is around 96.7-97 degrees, I have been told my blood pressure is too low but it doesn't really bother me). Barely holding fluids. But...I went. Bai Fut Sow was miserable. I just wanted it to end. But you know the thing. After I did that, that one night of exercise and hard chi gong...I didn't get sick again that year. Nor the year after, not 5 years on. I did EVENTUALLY get ill again, but it was just a cold and I was deployed for humanitarian to the Philippines and it was dirty, hot and the water polluted so I think its excusable. Oh...and to this day I have not had those chest pains in going on 8 years now!

So that's it. No nasty pics or anything. Not exciting I know. But definitely I think the change in my life came from my kung fu/tai chi experiences.

[GeneChing]

Post some gory pics here. We want to see your knee all exposed and nekkid.

[tigerclawmarks]

Hey guys! Thanks so much for the stories you have shared so far. We still need a few more stories for our issue. You only haver 2 more days to craft your heart-rendering tale of triumph through the use of martial arts.

So, please consider sharing your stories with the rest of the martial arts community. If you feel more comfortable sharing it privately, remember, you can always email me at tigerclawmarks@gmail.com. We can even print the story anonymously if you'd like!

Thanks to everyone who has shared their stories thus far. I'll be in touch before the end of the week to acquire your mailing addresses so we can send you a copy of the next ClawMarks.

Cheers,
Ashxxx