tendon problems

[Kaylun]

Can anyone help or give me advice?

I've been doing kung fu for many years and have been very lucky in so much as I've had very few injuries.

but over the last 24 months i've had lots, knee ligerments, elbow them hip and now achillies.

treatment is ok had Acupuncture use liniments and jow

what i want help with is what is the best thing to take to stop this from becoming an on going problem and stopping me training in the future,

[Xiao3 Meng4]

Not knowing how old you are, or how hard you train, or anything really, I vote diet, Qigong and/or postural core training. Eat seasonally and locally, lots of raw and cooked veggies; a good dose of protein in the morning and afternoon, then something lighter in the evening; lots of water, too.

Repetitive tendon and ligament injuries generally points to liver/gallbladder issues, but it could be other things too. Go see your acupuncturist and get him to do a thorough intake. Ask for dietary recommendations and find a Qigong that suits your needs. Standing meditation is a good way to start, regardless.

[Vajramusti]

In addition to the previous advice....
I dont know what kind of fung fu you do-but bad postural habits and wrong motions over time can account for some of your problems.
There are good books on posture and motion and exercises for correcting them by good physical therapists and good yoga experts.

joy chaudhuri

[Dale Dugas]

fish oil capsules along with jows and acupuncture can help as its a natural anti inflammatory as well as being the good fats your brain needs.

What kung fu do you practice?


Let me know how I can be of service.

[herb ox]

If you've been training for awhile in the fashion that most Westerners do, which is H-A-R-D-C-O-R-E , you're likely starting to burn into some of that precious Yin that nourishes your tendons and ligaments. Jow works great so you can keep training, but the root cause needs to be addressed...

The ligaments are nourished by the Liver Blood, specifically, and the health of the bones is due to the Kidney Yin. It's a natural process (kinda) to burn the yin when you work hard - the Qi has to come from somewhere, and the Jing is the repository. Now, Jing is the essence of Yin, and, correct me if I'm wrong, the great amounts of Yang used in heavy exercise to convert the Jing to Qi can injure the Yang of the Kidneys and Spleen, ultimately reducing the body's ability to create blood (which is a 'spleen' function), thus undernourishing the tendons.

I've heard Liu Wei Di Huang, or 6 Flavors Rehmannia formula is a good one for nourishing the liver and kidney yin, and thus nourishing the tendons. Consult your local herbalist to have the formula modified to suit your individual constitution / presentation.

The point is, you gotta replace that Yin somehow - herbs, adequate rest and diet / supplements, Dao Yin exercise, meditation all help to nourish the Yin.

And then there's those esoteric techniques for bedroom fu...

peace

herb ox

[taai gihk yahn]

actually, the first question that I would ask is, what makes you think it's your tendons per se that are giving you trouble?

I mean, you mention your knee "ligerments", your elbow and hip in general, and then your "achilles"; sounds like you don't actually know which structures specifically are involved here (typically, it's a combination of muscle, tendon, ligament, other connective tissue, etc.;

seems to me like you have a variety of issues; however, you do not state if any of these are due to specific, direct trauma as opposed to simple wear-and-tear over time ("side effects of living" as my wife likes to say); as such, treatment of these might require different approaches depending on the etiology, severity, chronicity, etc.

despite all of the good general suggestions above (and you have no idea how lucky you are that you got answers from xiao meng, herb ox and dale, three of the most reliable, knowledgeable and ethical health-care practitioners on the forum, IMPE, as opposed to some of the amateur idiots who usually chime in on these things), my advice would be to find someone who can work with you directly; this is especially so if some of your issues are more interconnected than others, and therefore treatment sequencing may be more important for you than someone else; that said, certainly use what you were given here as a guideline when researching practitioners, meaning that if they give you similar suggestions, you can probably be confident that they are on the right track

[Kaylun]

Thanks for all the advice

for a bit more info

I am 48 started training when i was 17 in Lau Gar here in the U.K.

over the last 10 years i have also studied Chen tai chi

[uki]

further sound advice... eat some mollusks.

[herb ox]

why mollusks, Uki?

ox

[uki]

why mollusks, Uki?

you are what you eat... i believe that by eating mollusks, one improves and enhances the formation of these types of tissues do to the molecular make up and similarities found in the tissues of mollusks... it just popped in my head a few years ago and made sense ever since.