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9 Instructional Videos

35 mins of Training

Who Will Benefit from this Course?

This course is for nurses who to wants to feel more confident in their ability to help people.

 

Imagine if you were able to help patience with..

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  • Experience relief from chronic back and neck pain

  • Decrease their dependence on opiates

  • Improve their quality of life

1. Identify specific White Tiger Qigong techniques to reduce chronic back and neck pain.

 

2. Use White Tiger Qigong movements to educate patients in pain-relieving self-care options and for the nurse’s self-care.

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3. Long-term self-care method of healing

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4. How to educate and assist their patients in reducing pain, increasing mobility, avoiding prescriptions to reduce symptoms, decrease the use of opiates, and provide long-lasting health benefits.

 

5. guide this population by learning about the causes of chronic back and neck pain, how mindset affects pain, and how to teach qigong.

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Here's What You'll Learn...

The Problem: Chronic Back and Neck Pain and Their Medical Treatments

84% percent of adults report having back or neck pain in their lifetime. (1) This prevalence begs the question of whether a long-term self-care method of healing could be provided either supplementally or instead of traditional medications. 

 

Current treatments for back and neck pain have limited interventions and are poorly understood. Understanding the multiple factors that cause chronic back and neck pain can help us help the people who experience it. (1) The current treatment for back and neck pain mainly uses opiates with dangerous effects, despite evidence showing that these drugs fail to control chronic pain.

 

Health and Human Services public access shows a 45% increase in opiate-related ER visits from 2000 to 2002 alone. With opiates being the standard treatment of choice in the past, secondary health complications have also arisen, such as bowel obstructions, addiction, and respiratory complications. (2)

 

In addition, recent evidence shows that opioids are no more effective for chronic pain than over-the-counter medications like Tylenol, and there is potential for opiates to cause opioid-induced hyperalgesia. This reaction makes the pain worse. (3)

 

Public surveys about pain show a lack of knowledge about potential nonpharmacologic solutions to chronic pain. The public does not know that complementary, integrative, and alternative forms of self-care exist or which ones to trust. (2) 

 

This lack of knowledge is so pervasive that even most nurses are unaware of simple movements that are beneficial to patients with chronic lower back and neck pain. Most nurses do not know:

  1. That back pain often arises from improper movement and the destruction of the fascia

  2. That gentle qigong movements can be beneficial to many patients with chronic back or neck pain

  3. How to instruct patients to do restorative qigong movements safely and effectively

 

Nursing education typically covers the breadth of information available through the study of Western medicine, as required for clinical and hospital work. However, nursing schools and nursing employers rarely teach nurses about the studies that show the efficacy of using qigong as a self-care method that reduces pain. 

Solution: Nurses Can Educate Their Patients about Using Qigong for Chronic Pain Relief

 

Nurses want to learn how to educate and assist their patients in reducing pain, increasing mobility, avoiding prescriptions to reduce symptoms, decrease the use of opiates, and provide long-lasting health benefits. 

 

Understanding the multiple factors that cause chronic back and neck pain can help us better accomplish these goals. The public can avoid secondary complications and experience more holistic pain relief by learning about safe and effective treatments beyond pharmaceuticals and surgical interventions. 

 

Nurses can better guide this population by learning about the causes of chronic back and neck pain, how mindset affects pain, and how to teach qigong. The long-term effects of qigong practice can help reduce missed days at work and healthcare costs. (4)

 

Nurses can learn about complementary and integrative treatments so they can provide a more holistic approach to pain relief and help people avoid secondary complications such as opiate dependence, immobility, and loss of an active lifestyle.

 

Nurses are encouraged to be patient educators and advocates for better pain control. Before teaching patients/clients about qigong, nurses must assess each patient’s:

  • Education and comprehension related to the causes of their pain

  • Ability to focus, watch, hear, and practice the qigong movements  

  • Levels of pain, mobility, and ability to perform activities of daily living

 

After teaching the patient about qigong and documenting their practice of the movements, the nurse should assess and document any changes in the patient’s:

  • Vital signs and pain

  • Range of motion and mobility, such as going from lying, sitting, or standing

  • Daily life functions, including missing work

  • Depression, anxiety, sleep patterns, and quality of life

The Importance of Our Fascia

 

While nurses are commonly familiar with fascia, recent studies have revisited the importance of this comprehensive system of connective tissues. Ligaments, tendons, and collagen are all fascia. Fascia is layered in almost every organ and body system. Fascia affects how we move, how we are shaped, how our nervous system can communicate, and even how we digest our food.

 

Gentle movement decreases fascial tissue hardening, and research shows that fascia has a liquid component that lubricates tissues. We usually don't think about fascia being part water, but up to three-fourths of fascia is bound to water. When we are not hydrated enough and not moving the body using its full range of motion, the water cannot lubricate the fascia, causing stiffness and pain.

 

We also have a gelatinous agent that helps with the lubrication of fascia called hyaluronic acid and glucose amino glycans. This substance helps hold the water in place and acts like “WD-40” to keep things moving. We must move our body in the full range of motion to lubricate the joints, organs, and muscles properly. Long-term immobility can cause detrimental skeletal changes due to the hardening of the fascia. (6)

 

To better understand these principles, please watch these two videos on fascia:

The Importance of Our Fascia

 

While nurses are commonly familiar with fascia, recent studies have revisited the importance of this comprehensive system of connective tissues. Ligaments, tendons, and collagen are all fascia. Fascia is layered in almost every organ and body system. Fascia affects how we move, how we are shaped, how our nervous system can communicate, and even how we digest our food.

 

Gentle movement decreases fascial tissue hardening, and research shows that fascia has a liquid component that lubricates tissues. We usually don't think about fascia being part water, but up to three-fourths of fascia is bound to water. When we are not hydrated enough and not moving the body using its full range of motion, the water cannot lubricate the fascia, causing stiffness and pain.

 

We also have a gelatinous agent that helps with the lubrication of fascia called hyaluronic acid and glucose amino glycans. This substance helps hold the water in place and acts like “WD-40” to keep things moving. We must move our body in the full range of motion to lubricate the joints, organs, and muscles properly. Long-term immobility can cause detrimental skeletal changes due to the hardening of the fascia. (6)

 

To better understand these principles, please watch these two videos on fascia:

What Is Qigong?

 

Qigong (pronounced chee-gong) is an ancient Chinese exercise and healing method that involves meditation, controlled breathing, and movement exercises. It is an active way of connecting with one’s body, mind, and energy. “Qi” is a concept from traditional Chinese culture that means vital energy, breath, or spirit, and “qigong” means life force practice.

 

Qigong practice invites improved focus, meditation, and movement, which helps relax the body and mind. The benefits of qigong include all aspects of health:

  • From a biological perspective, qigong helps loosen the fascia, soothe the nervous system, reduce muscle tension, and open the lymphatic system’s flow. 

  • From the mental perspective, it increases one’s awareness and mindfulness. 

  • From an emotional perspective, it can help decrease depression, increase relaxation, reduce anxiety, and decrease the fight/flight response. 

  • From a spiritual perspective, it can bring peace and reconnection with vital energy. 

White Tiger Medical Qigong

 

Medical qigong is a specific category of qigong that is designed to produce predictable health benefits. There are many types of medical qigong, such as International Medical Qigong College, Exercise to Heal, the Healer Within the Foundation, and White Tiger Qigong. 

 

White Tiger Qigong is a 5000-year-old Taoist healing method that uses gentle full-body motions as medicine. This motion system incorporates breathing, mindfulness, and dynamic movement for preventive health, rehabilitation, emotional benefits, and health recovery. 

 

Think about the way the joints in our bodies can move. In our daily life, most joints do not receive their full range of motion. A significant number of people are sitting at a desk job which involves a lot of lateral movement. We drive in cars, walking, weight lifting, and stretch mainly in lateral, one-way directions. This is doing our bodies a disservice and denying their full potential. This one way of moving is not allowing for full lubrication of the body, and thus we get pain from lack of mobility caused by the shortening and hardening of the fascia. 

 

In White Tiger Qigong, we use circular movements to wring toxins out of the tissues and let nutrients flood into the joints and fascia. These circular, spiraling movements give White Tiger Qigong unique benefits compared to physical therapy or yoga.

 

The Benefits of White Tiger Medical Qigong

 

To understand how White Tiger Qigong works on the fascia, we need to understand the kinetic chains in the body. From the view of sports medicine, we can learn the term “kinetic chains.” A kinetic chain occurs when a joint is in motion, and it creates a chain of events that affects the movement of the adjacent joints. We have five main kinetic chains in the body. When all five of the main kinetic chains work together, we have a well-oiled machine with all joints moving together. Injuries occur when one or more of these chains is broken. 

 

To deepen your understanding of kinetic chains, please watch this excellent 6-minute video: https://youtu.be/9JKdBDE5SEM.

 

In White Tiger Qigong, we use the terms “coiling” and “uncoiling.” These terms help explain how the twisting motions encourage the muscles and fascia to wrap around the bones by wringing toxins out of the tissues like a sponge. This motion helps:

  • Lubricate the fascia and increase hyaluronic acid

  • Loosen and break up the congealed areas of fascia like those we see in adhesions and contractures, so the tissues glide with less friction, which increases mobility 

  • Force blood into the bone marrow to increase blood cell production

  • And release trapped emotions

 

Additional benefits of White Tiger Qigong include:

  • Increases in bone density (5)

  • Helps with reducing cancer pain (6)

  • Increases cytotoxic NK cells (7)

  • Decreases ACTH (adrenocorticotropic hormone)

 

By learning how to incorporate qigong into practice, we can support better long-term back and neck pain control with fewer side effects related to opioid use. Patients will report an increased quality of life, including increased range of motion, less missed work due to back and neck pain, less pharmaceutical use, and decreased emotional symptoms and stress.  

 

Next Steps

Next Steps

 

Your next step is to watch the nine short videos that show the instructor, Brooke Benincosa, BSN, RN, performing White Tiger Qigong movements to help with chronic back and neck pain. These will include standing movements and modified movements for seated people who have less mobility. Nurses are encouraged to use these movements for their own chronic back and neck pain, too.

 

VIDEO-WATCHING REQUIREMENT: To receive the three CE contact hours for this course, you must watch each qigong practice video at least three times. We recommend that you simply watch a video once, then practice the movements while watching the video at least two more times. The videos are short, relaxing, and easy to follow.

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