Water-based healing art targets chronic pain

Popular culture sensationalizes the martial arts as inflicting pain, but the reality is that these ancient practices are more about internal healing than forms of defense.

At Paradise Salon and Wellness Spa in Carson City, clients are practicing the graceful, soothing movements of Tai Chi -- a type of martial art -- in a therapeutic warm-water environment that helps to relieve chronic pain by promoting wellness of both mind and body.

The exercise is called Ai Chi, a unique blend of Tai Chi and Qi Gong healing concepts combined with Watsu water massage techniques, according to Aqua For Balance, an online authority for water-based wellness and therapy.

Developed in 1990 by Jun Konno, president of the Aquadynamics Institute in Yokohama, Japan, Ai Chi is defined as "a series of movements performed in a slow, focused manner and accompanied by deep breathing," Aqua For Balance states.

Paradise Wellness Director Starr Nixdorf is a professional trainer certified in Ai Chi. She has been teaching the healing art for about two years now.

"I discovered it at the 2013 Aquatic Therapy & Rehab Institute (ATRI) conference," she said. "My expertise was teaching people on a Pilates Reformer, Dance classes, leading boot camp and Hatha yoga classes at gyms around Carson City. Water workouts were off my radar."

Nixdorf decided to study aquatic therapy in a weeklong intensive at the ATRI national conference, in which Ai Chi was an integral part of that learning.

While taking her first Ai Chi class, she said everything had clicked and came together.

"During my first Ai Chi class I felt it, that inexplicable sensation in my hands and in my center," she said. "It was intriguing, for me the closest feeling was a restorative yoga practice with an ultra relaxing 'shavasana' (a restorative yoga pose)."

Nixdorf said the facility in which Paradise operates is an ideal venue for practicing Ai Chi, and not just because of the pool.

"I knew Paradise would be the perfect place to give people the effects of Ai Chi," she said. "The quiet of the adult only pools and the warm saltwater, it is perfect. "

Nixdorf said she finds Ai Chi complementary to other healing art forms, such as yoga and Pilates.

"It has a kindred essence with yoga and Pilates, which I have been teaching since 2004," she said.

Like Pilates and yoga, Ai Chi is about focusing energy and directing it at the source of physiological or mental distress.

That, along with the long-known therapeutic benefits of water, makes Ai Chi both an attractive alternative to pain or stress management and an effective modality toward healing.

"Ai Chi to me benefits anybody who wants to feel better, wants to feel stronger," said Susie Barnes, a Carson City resident and retired Southwest Gas Corporation employee. "The majority of us that are in the class are there for the aches and pains we are dealing with."

Barnes, who sustained injuries from an automobile accident, said she has experienced significant improvement in her mobility since starting the Ai Chi class at Paradise.

"I was walking with my cane, but with Ai Chi, it has helped me," she said. "It's remarkable."

Barnes attributes much of her healing to Ai Chi, which she said supports the muscles and is easy on the joints.

"Because of the fact that we move very slowly and purposely, we're not straining and we're supporting our muscles and joints," she said.

Chronic pain sufferers often experience more discomfort with exercise that is high impact, and this can be a set back to their healing.

As an aquatic modality, Ai Chi takes full advantage of the weightlessness of water, which is naturally low impact on the body.

"I tried to take walks everyday, but it was difficult on me so I stopped," Barnes said. "I knew I had to reach out for something, something that wasn't so hard on me."

That's when she discovered the Ai Chi class at Paradise Wellness Spa.

"It made a huge difference," she said. "I don't have to use my cane now."

Nixdorf said the key component to Ai Chi as a pain management technique is the water and the body's natural response to it.

"The short answer is comfort, buoyancy makes joints feel better, stress relief from the moving meditation, and the warm water," she said. "But the roots of Ai Chi are in traditional oriental medicine. The theory, very simplified, is that your body has Chi flowing through it. When the Chi gets stuck or blocked there is pain where there should be flow."

Vicki Main said she has been dealing with neurological pain from Multiple Sclerosis for 13 years.

The Reno resident and medical office receptionist said she started taking Ai Chi at Paradise a few months ago, and the difference in the severity of her pain was notable in a matter of days.

"In the first week, I felt so much better and noticed a difference in my mobility," she said. "To get out of my chair at work, it hurt. Now I'm finding I'm not in as much pain."

Main said she finds the warm salt water pool at Paradise to be an important contributor to the way Ai Chi has made her feel overall.

"The warm salt water is wonderful on my body," she said. "It's soothing. It helps loosening everything up so I can do the exercises."

Ai Chi is also meant to be meditative, Aqua For Balance states, so the environment should be free of noise to create calm and promote relaxation of both body and mind.

Main said Ai Chi is sort of like taking a mini vacation.

"It's a calm of day stress and things that can be stressful," she said. "I could fall asleep in that class because I'm so relaxed and at ease. Starr always has soothing music on in the background. Anyone who suffers with anything should really try it."

Nixdorf said taking the first step to trying Ai Chi is like deciding to try anything else in life for the first time.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

"Ai Chi will only work if you come to the water," she said.

Paradise Wellness Spa offers four Ai Chi classes per week, Monday through Thursday. For more information, contact Nixdorf at 883-4434 or visit the spa's web site here.