Acupucture, Session Eins

Another one of those things that I’ve never really understood is acupuncture.  It’s considered traditional medicine, yet a large percentage of “westerners” have never experienced it.

I just happen to have a friend that is a registered physio and is now looking into acupucture.  To get licensed he needs some guinea pigs, of sorts, to practice on.  Well, 9am this morning, I became one of those.  He wanted to focus on one area, so we discussed my various aches and pains and settled on my right shoulder.  I’m not quite sure how I injured it, but my range of motion has been very limited for a number of weeks and I’ve been too lazy to see a physio.

We started off with some ROM tests to see where the pain and limited motion is located.  He then decided on two needles in the shoulder and one in the hand … kind of a weird feeling watching him place these needles in me, for which I could barely even feel the contact on my skin.

However, the 4th needle, which is part of a different technique (i’ll get the name later), was a bit painful and strange.  The idea is like deep tissue massage with the intent of breaking up a large knot in my rear-shoulder-back-area.  The feeling was very similar to electro therapy after an injury to stimulate your muscles … with an added touch of pain.  Not unbearable pain, but simply just pain.  An hour later, I can still feel the muscle that was worked on.

Stay tuned for Friday, as I go in for session Zwei.