Exercise (6)

Everybody should have experienced the fast beating pulse after exercise. The rapid pulse indicates that the heat is produced in the body. However, the most of the heat produced by the extreme exercise is unnecessary for the body, and it takes a lot of energy to diffuse it. This is the reason why exercising too much becomes burdensome.

It is ideal for those who always exercise like athletes not to produce heat much even during exercise, so the normal pulse of an athlete tends to be rather slow.


*This article is translated from "Yamai hitokuchi Memo" written by Shoji Kobayashi, 2005.

Exercise (5)

The body is active even during sleep at night, though not as the daytime. Heat production is not as high as during the daytime, so one uses bedding to cover the less heat production at night.

The reason why children move a lot is because their bodies are too small to store the heat, so they move their bodies a lot to supplement the heat even during night. This is why children tend to be untidy sleepers in general. Moving a lot during night is a good movement to produce heat in the body.
However, this does not produce enough heat, so if one takes off bedding, the body gets cold.

*This article is translated from "Yamai hitokuchi Memo" written by Shoji Kobayashi, 2005.

Core

When one starts learning a certain acupuncture methodology, the focus would be on its technical aspects. Everybody would be into acquiring techniques that are visible and exist in front of you. However, having certain skills and techniques are not necessary equal to the success of treatments.

Have you ever felt that you could have treated patients better when you just started acupuncture? Why is it, though you were inexperienced in terms of techniques? It would be possible to analyze in various perspectives, but one reason would be because you would have expected and believed possibilities of acupuncture more, when you just started acupuncture.

Techniques are acquired by constant training. However, they are not enough for the treatments.
Practitioners need the core, the basis of such techniques. That is the belief, as you can be sure what you are doing by learning the basic theories. Making the CORE bigger and stronger is the best and shortest way to improve your treatment efficiently.



*This article is translated from Japanese Shakuju association blog.

Exercise (4)

Exercise makes the circulation of qi well, but when the flow of qi is too strong, sometimes the body cannot absorb it. This is the situation that the body is filled with heat, and one notices it as a pain, for example, one has a knee pain when having walked too much, and an elbow pain when having played tennis too much.  Sometimes, one experiences a chest pain.

It is important to know the condition of the body when exercising, and make sure how long you can do it. Please think to what extent you start feeling the pain, and how you can avoid the pain.

*This article is translated from "Yamai hitokuchi Memo" written by Shoji Kobayashi, 2005.

Exercise (3)

What you have to be aware while doing an exercise is breathing. Let slow movement of the body be along with breathing. When exhaling, the body tissues shrink, and when inhaling they become loose.　Therefore, when exhaling, movements of shrinking the body, such as lowering arms and bending the body are good, on the other hand, when inhaling, movements of loosening the body, such as stretching the arms and spreading legs suitable.

The purpose of exercise is not strengthening muscle power unduly, but regulating qi circulation of the body by exchanging air outside (outside qi) and air inside (inside qi)　well.


*This article is translated from "Yamai hitokuchi Memo" written by Shoji Kobayashi, 2005.

Exercise (2)

What kind of exercise fits myself? Everybody would come across this question. Exercise can be viewed in two aspects; one is that people who have enough energy use their power, and another is that people who lacks energy do for enhancing energy.

Let alone those who have surplus energy, one of required conditions during exercise is to do with some loading. The bag carried when climbing up the mountain is the typical example, and for example, one feels tired when he/she carries　moves arms slowly and continuously, this is because the weight of arms becomes a load.

*This article is translated from "Yamai hitokuchi Memo" written by Shoji Kobayashi, 2005.

Exercise (1)

Nobody can deny the necessity of exercise. In a broad sense, all daily activities are kinds of exercise, but in general exercise refer to activities requiring physical efforts.


Exercise is adjusting the movement of qi, by moving muscles, such as limbs, to affect the deep qi in the body.

When qi moves, heat is produced and the body gets warm and the adjustment of its work refers to that the heat spreads all over the body evenly. Good exercise can maintain this state for a long time.


*This article is translated from "Yamai hitokuchi Memo" written by Shoji Kobayashi, 2005.

Sweat (6)

One sweats after having a meal. This is because the circulation of qi of the body becomes active. Strong seasoning, especially hot and spicy foods make the body hot and sweat a lot. This suggests that the taste of foods itself contains the element to move qi.

Young people need and are able to absorb such movement of qi, so they tend to love well-seasoned foods, on the other hand, old people tend to take simple flavoring. This suggests one aspect of "good medicine tastes bitter".

*This article is translated from "Yamai hitokuchi Memo" written by Shoji Kobayashi, 2005.

Contact Needling

Contact needling is the first step of Shakuju therapy, which is approaching the shallow qi, however, this is indeed the profound skill.

Shallow qi is the relative expression towards deep qi, but what is shallow depends on the skill of the practitioner. There is a famous story about contact needling by Kobayashi sensei, the treatment of the frozen shoulder. The story is like this...

A patient who could not raise his shoulder at all.. He said it was the "frozen shoulder".Kobayashi sensei started the treatment procedure as usual. At first, contact needling on the abdomen, he repeated it several times, then asked the patient to raise the shoulder. The patient could raise the arm and was very surprised. Then, Kobayashi sensei followed the treatment procedure, and finished the treatment.

It might not be the frozen shoulder called in Western medicine, however, it was the fact that the patient could raise the arm that he could not before the treatment. Even the symptoms mentioned above, if it did not take much time since the symptom began, do you think whether the disease is shallow?? Then, can any practitioner, who faces with a patient having such symptom, give the same treatment result?? Please consider a lot. 

When practitioners are used to clinical experiences, they tend to give an attention to use of back shu points, the treatment pattern and supplemental treatments that Kobayashi sensei found out recently. However, the stimulation of one acupuncture point makes the Jin-qi of the patient tonified in Shakuju therapy, so brushing up each skill of each step of the treatment procedure leads to the raise of treatment effect dramatically. I think this is the interesting point in the therapy. Rather, it is hyper-interesting.

How can we brush up the skill of contact needling, then? At first, (1) apply the pressure enough to the skin with the needle tip; however, though the tip of SJ needle is egg-rounded shape, the needle is needle, so it makes a patient painful when touched. So, (2) pull the skin enough with Oshide (pressing hand). To be able to cover these two points is the purpose of basic classes.

To be honest, needling randomly, and the pace of the speed are required in the more advanced level.

Perceiving the state of the abdomen with Oshide side, grasping the changing state of areas where contact needling passed with Sashide side, and the strength of each area, the speed, and breathing of a therapist when he/she can do all these mentioned above unconsciously, and projecting consciousness later on... The image that the needle extending from the contact area to the back, one that dropping a little stone to the surface of water and spreading like a ripple, and the infinite image from the abdomen to the whole body of the patient...

As a first glimpse, it might look like the same contact needling, but the difference is obvious. Please look at the movie of contact needling by Kobayashi sensei again, taking account of what is mentioned above.

About Shakuju Therapy (4)

"Shakuju" of Shakuju therapy is the names of disorders appeared in the abdomen; Shaku is one which stays at the deep inside, and does not move easily, and jyu is one which is in the shallow layer and easy to move.

The words "Shakuju"  originates from the "Nan-jing". Later on, there are periods that Shakuju were interpreted as what would be referred as cancer in the present day, but Shakuju in Shakuju Therapy basically means the pain, hardness and pulsation of the abdomen.

By the way, when one practices Shakuju Therapy for a long time, the I-Ching's way of thinking is getting important to deepen its understanding. It can be said as the basis of all Oriental concepts.
Simply speaking, the ideas of I-Ching  is trying to see everything in the world in yin and yang. Oriental medicine is what is applied this yin-yang concept to the human body.

According to the yin-yang concept, when looking at the human body, Shakuju can be explained as Shaku being relatively yin and Ju being relatively yang  among the disorders of the abdomen.

Then, how do you regard Shakuju, disorders of the abdomen, in the whole body context, with yin-yang idea? The abdomen is located in yin side of the human body. If you would like to deal with disorders appeared in the yin side, the focus would be on the yang side of the body. This is the view based on yin-yang idea; treating disorders of the abdomen with back-shu points is the most distinctive characteristic of Shakuju therapy. 


Shakuju is the body reaction that anybody can feel and confirm. When supposing that the states which can be confirmed, such as the main complaint and symptoms, are yang, their causes are yin and what cannot be confirmed. Therapists grasp the condition of the deficiency of Jin-qi (yin), which is invisible, and impossible to be touched by confirming the disorders of the abdomen and other reference points (yang), which can be touched and felt. 

By the way, some people might think that Shakuju therapy examines only the abdominal area (abdominal diagnosis) by its name, but we also do pulse diagnosis and check not only the abdomen, but other reference points, so please do not misunderstand!

Sweat (5)

Generally speaking, people perspire more than expected during sleep. This can be explained because heat qi, that is produced by the work of internal organs, is absorbed by various body activities, such as seeing and thinking, while being awake, but during sleep there are no such actions.

Especially, children perspire more than adults during sleep, because they are in the growth period. If they emit heat qi, taking off duvet or bedding, their bodies end up getting cold. This is called cold caught in sleep, and this is why kids get chilled easily while sleep.

*This article is translated from "Yamai hitokuchi Memo" written by Shoji Kobayashi, 2005.