The Football Fan’s Guide to Acupuncture and Acupressure
Millions of people around the world use acupuncture and acupressure to win back their health, improve their athletic performance and live their best lives. Whether you’re an armchair quarterback, a weekend warrior, or a competitive athlete, acupuncture and acupressure can help you achieve your goals too.
Many of my patients come to me hoping that acupuncture and acupressure can deliver an 80 yard, “Hail Mary” outcome. They’ve used up all of the options that Western medicine has to offer, they’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain, so they decide to give it a try. As in football, sometimes the “Hail Mary” works out and they feel much better after just a couple of treatments. Barring divine intervention, those patients tend to have no active pathogens and their issue is just a couple of blockages in their Qi circulation (which can cause a lot of problems). Once released, the body quickly responds to the improved blood flow and delivery of nutrients and energy to the areas of concern. Those patients experience rapid healing, even with issues that have bothered them for years.
More often, acupuncture is like the passing game in football. You can still get to the end zone, but there’s an active opponent that’s getting in the way of that 80 yard touchdown. The opponent can be an active pathogen, weakened organ function from too many years of dealing with a chronic condition, or our emotional responses to stress, anger, and grief. In that case, progress tends to be made in smaller increments, 5 or 10 yards at a time. There can be fumbles when life gets in the way, and once in awhile you get sacked and need to regroup and play defense to make it to your goal of effortless good health.
The key to success when setbacks happen is to keep the end zone in mind and never give up - because if you keep your resolution strong and hold the line, setbacks can become temporary, you’ll get the ball back and you can start moving down the field toward the goal posts again. At the highest levels, football is as much a mental game as a physical one, and so is acupuncture.
So where does acupressure fit in? It’s the ground game. It’s a skill that you learn and can apply every day. And once you learn it, it’s free forever. Where acupuncture may get you a 5 yard gain, a strategic acupressure play may get you 5 inches closer to your goal every time you do it (though sometimes you can make big plays with acupressure as well). It takes grit and determination to play the ground game in football. You have to be consistent and grind it out, play after play, paying attention to the little things that you see, looking for openings and reinforcing successful techniques. Teams make touchdowns every weekend using nothing but the ground game and I’ve had patients successfully manage their conditions using nothing but the acupressure protocols that I’ve developed for them. It’s not as unusual as a successful “Hail Mary”, but it’s just as exciting.
I’ve written The Acupressure Log Book so that you can learn from your successes, hold yourself accountable and develop a personal playbook of points that work for you in every situation. Never overlook the importance of the ground game in achieving victory or think that you can’t learn how to do acupressure, because you can. Coach Lou Holtz said it best,
"Ability is what you're capable of doing.
Motivation determines what you do.
Attitude determines how well you do it." –Lou Holtz
Don’t wait until you need a “Hail Mary” to get your life back. Acupressure can be done in conjunction with other treatment modalities. Call, text or email me to schedule an acupressure consultation on Zoom and get your ground game going.