Newbie from New Jersey

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[mrmookid]

Hello. I'm 28 years old and totally out of shape. While in high school I trained for about 3.5 years in Karate. It was a traditional school but ended up leaving because I had other priorities at the time (Drinking, fun, college, girls, cigarettes). The past 10 years or so I've constantly beat myself up for leaving karate. Often I wondered what my life would be like had I stayed with it. No doubt, I'd be stronger, have more self-confidence, better self-esteem.

Earlier this year I was diagnosed with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. I went under the knife in February and am still recovering. My doctor recommended that I go back for the other hand next year though I don't think I'm going to.

It was after surgery that I started thinking long and hard about my lack of exercise. I've barely done any physical activity in years (I work in computers). I'm often tired and depressed. I started doing some WWW searches on martial arts, despite the aches in my hands and wrists decided to go with Aikido. I love the philosophy behind it.

Anyway, I just wanted to say hello. I've been to class 4 times now and will be going again tonight. I feel like a complete klutz up on the mat - having trouble remembering the moves (even after I've just performed them) but I’m going to stick with it. I need to take it easy because of my wrists and am worried about it impacting my studies in the long-term. Anyone else here have CTS and study Aikido?

[akiy]

Hi Keith,

Welcome to the AikiWeb Forums and thank you for your introduction! You may want to start up a separate thread on carpal tunnel syndrome and aikido, perhaps in the General forum, as I believe it'll get more traffic and views there.

-- Jun

[Janet Rosen]

Hi, Keith, and welcome.
The wrist stretches in aikido are similar to the things that are taught to prevent rsi, and when my husband first started complaining of rsi type symptoms many yrs ago we started doing aikido wrist stretches together once daily. His symptoms went away within a wk. Obviously this is one person/anecdotal, but many folks on various forums have noted that wrist stretches in the dojo seem to help their computer related woes.

[Bronson]

I'm sure I'll get flack for this but when I started having rsi symptoms I saw a good acupuncturist. I figured if it didn't work I could still get surgery eventually if needed but if it did then, bonus. Turned out it worked very well. Since I caught it early it cleared up in two treatments. I've yet to have a recurrence of the pain...over two years now.

Bronson

[PeaceHeather]

One of my senseis went through a period where, due to his job, his hands would hurt so much that he couldn't grip his partner's gi in training, or do wrist grabs or any other kind of "grab" attacks. He says he learned to use his body motion and ki to make up for it -- must've worked, too, since his flow is amazing to watch out on the mat.

I'd avoid the surgery, personally. Not that I'm a doctor, but I don't know all that many people who have sung the praises of their surgeons afterward, ya know? If it were me I'd go for strength-building exercises, physical therapy, etc... speaking from an experience where I took a job as a painter, and after a month was astonished to discover that, as my forearm strength grew, my wrist problems went away.

*shrug* YMMV, naturally.
Welcome!
Heather