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Everyone's an expert. When training with my sifu in Hong Kong in the early days, I very quickly learned to be very sceptical of anything I was taught or told by a Tai Chi elder brother, uncle or indeed by anyone on any subject whatsoever. The late George Liu was a good friend of Tai Chi older brother Ian and some time ago posted a video of egregious applications. 

Fairly quickly I found the best thing to do was to go direct to the source and even then to check things out. For example I found a number of Western Medieval and Renaissance weapon techniques which were identical to TCC weapon form techniques with the applications shown in European weapon manuals often better and more close to TCC theory than some I had been shown.

Everything is something; the question is what? 

I once wrote that there are no techniques in TCC only concepts. However, concepts are applied through techniques. I don't want to teach or practice an incoherent mish mash like the many Nei Jia Chuan internet whores. They'll show you KO punches, never having fought or KOd anyone. Nowadays thanks to Facebook and youtube everyone's an expert for 5 minutes. If you want to become skilled in TCC, you will need to invest time energy and money in private [Inside the Door] tuition. Yeah, it's not enough to go to a class once a week and peruse a few video clips.

One final thing, if your practice is hurting your body, it is usually because of bad technique on your part or a bad approach to  training. If in doubt, ask an expert