~Cracks_de_Rainbowz~

West meets East

Surprisingly, I had a lecture on dry needling a few days ago! Or rather it may be known more of as acupunture :) According to the regulations here, those who practise the needling techniques including Physios but are not pure tcm practioners can't call it acupunture but will have to term it as "Dry Needling". And I think dry needling targets the more superficial aspects such as subcutaneous tissue and muscles. It's definitely a totally different concept with regards to the functioning of the different body systems as compared to western medicine. But it's interesting to actually learn about the ideas behind yin and yang or zang and fu. When the caucasian lecturer was trying to pronounce all the names of the organs in hanyu pinyin, it sounded kinda weird. In fact, I knew it better than him haha but of course he's still the more knowledgeable one - that's the only thing I'm sure of :p He ended the lecture with "The concepts are examinable but not the acupuncture points." Kept us wondering if it was purely for informative purposes. With the emergence of alternative approaches and practices, whether if the concepts behind all those are proven or realistic, as long as it's beneficial, why not? But have to be sure that it's of no maliance and that will be one's sole responsibility as well not to seek the uncertified or back alley ones. Much is left to discover and unveil with an integrated approach :)

************
Beginning of the week, I'd an hour of pilates during prac which was conducted by one of our prac tutors who is also a pilates teacher. Always thought that pilates involve different kinds of equipment which is what makes it different from yoga. However, that session was purely done on a mat and we were instructed into different positions as well. Towards the end, it felt like I was suspending myself in mid-air and could feel maximal contraction from abdominals, back muscles and gluts and blood rushing to my ears. So what's the difference? As quoted from my PBL tutor, yoga is "training core with flexibility" while pilates is "training core with exercises" whici does makes a lot of sense and come to think of it now, it's a really apt description. I still feel that yoga integrates more mind and soul while pilates concentrates more on the physical aspects. Or maybe because of such a large class and in a way it wasn't a paid pilates class, the environment wasn't that conducive. Maybe I should try out the pilates session in the uni sports centre also to determine if my comparison is indeed as such.

posted by i was here ;) @ 7:07 PM