Teacup exercises for Shoulder/Arm mobility

Hi All!

A common condition we treat in the clinic is painful neck and shoulders.  We also work a lot with elbows and wrists.  Acupuncture is very effective for treatment.  However, results are even more profound (and longer lasting too!) if you can add exercises for self care.

Enter Teacup exercises…  These are fantastic and people love them.  It’s basically shoulder rotations, but your elbows and wrists follow suit.  Depending on how you do it, you can end up rotating all of your body.

In terms of Chinese medicine, this works to mobilize Wei Qi.  This Qi helps move the muscles of the body.  It is also involved in the way we react with the external world.  Thus, doing these exercises will help us have better mobility, more awake senses, and boosted immunity.  Plus, it just feels really good.  This is especially true if you’re in the majority of us that are posture challenged by the modern world.

Here are three different examples of youtube videos below.

Teacup Exercise + Progressions for shoulder mobility

• This one walks you through general steps and has the most instruction.  It is also more functional movement based, as opposed to TaiChi/QiGong approach.

Daily 5 Minute Qigong Tea Cups Exercise – Qigong for Shoulder Mobility

• This one is more energy practiced based and has a bit of warmup to go with

Tea Cup Form 茶杯形

• This video is a great example of what it looks like if you’re practicing more of a TaiChi approach.  James is an instructor in Austin and a really good guy.  Tell him I said hi!