Shoulders

  My arch nemesis my shoulders and mainly my right side. I have always had a love hate relationship with my shoulders. They are still fairly flexible but they do not like forms or push ups. I have just been doing a lot of physical physio exercises for my shoulders lately. 

  I don’t believe I have been going to hard on doing to much Physio on my shoulders, but I am still making progress with how many push ups I can do in a row. I can do 20, but my shoulders say I shouldn’t, because it will hurt me. 

  When I first started doing push ups again I was barely doing one. So I am making huge progress for me. I am trying to think about my situation and make it a positive one rather than a negative one. I have excuses for myself on why I should not do more push ups and start t-Rex my forms. I don’t want to do this; It is a path of taking the least resistance. 

  I know I need to progress wisely here. I am still going to give my shoulders the care and need they need to continue to be functional, but I am still going to attempt whatever I can do as a push up that is not as harsh for me at the moment. I am not doing 20 now, but I feel no issues or less pain when I go slow in my push ups.

 These shoulders of mine will slow my progress down, but I won’t let it define me like it has in the past. In the past I would slowly pull away from kung fu and use the excuse about my shoulders. It is a legit excuse and I could do more damage if I am to reckless with my training. I am tired of using this particular excuse even if it a good one. 

  I can still practice kung fu just not as fast or as hard as I would like to. I have to methodically place my punches and blocks, because if I don’t I will hurt myself more. I have to become more engaged with everything I do with my shoulders and how it interacts with the rest of my body.

  I am not so much in a situation where I feel major pain in my shoulders. I’m literally edging my shoulders and my limits. The biggest difference for me about my shoulders this time is that I am taking actions to make sure they don’t get worse. I am putting the time and effort to take care of my shoulders where last time I just pushed through or settled into mediocrity. I don’t want to repeat the same mistakes I made last time. I would back then maybe continue trying to do 20 push ups, but that would damage me and possibly make me have a huge set back.

  So I would say right now I am in a frustration mode, but not wanting to take the easy route. Doing nothing is my most strongest state I have trained and the most mastered. I know if I do to much resting on my shoulders I will eventually fall back into my bad habits. I am also in a just do something mode as well, because doing nothing begets me nothing. 

  If I have a day where the pain is very noticeable I do some basic arm movements and stretching. I get the rubber bands and see if I can do anything, but sometimes I can’t. So I do hot and cold on my shoulder and seems to alleviate the pain. Again I am not feeling immense pain; I can feel when my shoulders are telling me to take care of them. 

  I know what it is like to have major shoulder pain and I was miserable. I am a highly motivated individual right now to not hurt my shoulders and not lose my kung fu.

  Thank you again for taking the time to read yet another big blog, but that is time an effort I will always admire. Anyways here are some numbers.

Acts of kindness: 330

Km: 228

Sit ups: 3800

Push ups: 3800

Da mu hsing: 70

Drum stick form: 85

Spar: 108