24/10/2024
Ever been told to stop doing something you love due to pain? Here are some ways to modify instead:
Reassurance – In most cases with musculoskeletal pain, there is no serious pathology or need for invasive treatment like surgery. The presence of pain does not necessarily translate to tissue damage. We don’t want to make people fear movement or feel broken in the presence of pain. That is not a healing or empowering patient narrative. Reassurance can help patients feel more confident, in control, and can reduce anxiety, or other maladaptive coping strategies that further promote the pain they are experiencing.
Load – Load management becomes crucial in reducing the sensitivity of irritated tissues. Sometimes, our active lifestyle might exceed the capacity of the tissues we load during our movements. Scaling back the load in the presence of pain without completely de-loading the tissues is often a better route to take. This way, we don’t further lose the integrity of our tissue while we heal and aim to increase tissue capacity.
Range of Motion – Unless we feel pain throughout the entire range of motion, we can always shorten the range of motion to keep the movement pain-free. For example, suppose we feel pain at the very bottom of a squat. In that case, we can use something like a pin squat or a box squat, which allows us to keep working the squat pattern without irritating tissue since we cannot exceed the pain-free range of motion.
Exercise Selection – We don’t need to fixate on the exercise that is currently painful. If we cannot reduce the pain through modifications in load or ROM, plenty of other exercises can work the same muscle groups; in most cases, we can find something more manageable in the short term.
At Apex we pride ourselves on not taking away activities unless it is absolutely necessary. If you are currently experiencing pain with your favorite activities and have been told you need to take that activity off the table, it is worth it to come in and get a second opinion.
