We are medical providers that specialize in getting active populations to move in a pain free state and progress individuals in their fitness journey. So naturally, we want to discuss why painful movement can be such a detrimental idea and taking action on your pain is so important. "It will get better eventually" or "it usually just goes away" can cause a cascading decline in your fitness journey.
My brain typically works in "If-Then" statements or Conditional Statements. Example: If today is Wednesday, then yesterday was Tuesday. Get it? Cool. So let me pose this physical medicine If-Then statement to you...
If Movement is Medicine than Painful-Movement is the Anti-Medicine.
Not moving at all is also Anti-Medicine, I get it, but we will assume our listeners don't fall into this population and, therefore, won't go down that rabbit hole.
Can this overall idea be argued? Definitely. Is over simplification bad? Typically.
However, we can all agree that movement is essential for life and essential to remain healthy humans. Physically and emotionally, the benefits are endless.
Now, non-painful movement is ideal because this means there are no warning signs in the body saying to stop or to give attention to a specific joint. We can progress positively with our activity.
But, how about painful-movement? Anti-Medicine is a little harsh, but the reason I say this is that while moving can still be good as a whole in this situation, there is a good chance that we aren't progressing positively (unless you are coming back from a surgery or underlining syndrome).
Follow this idea:
Where there is Pain there is typically Weakness,
Where there is Weakness there is typically a Biomechanical Fault at the joint level,
Where there is a Biomechanical Fault at one joint, there can be a cascade into a Faulty Movement Pattern (to avoid the pain or joint limitation).
Where there is a Faulty Movement Pattern there becomes Biomechanic Faults at multiple joints
You see how one source of pain can cause such a cascading effect in the body in an otherwise healthy, (no significant underlying pathology) active adult.
As I said before, can this overall idea be argued? Definitely. Is over simplification bad? Typically. But, in the majority of the healthy and active populations, this idea holds true and the pain is an indicator that something needs to be addressed so we can continue to progress positively.
We will leave out of this post the best ways to get out of pain, such as manual techniques or corrective exercises. Understanding why it is so important to take immediate action of your pain is the message we are hoping to get across. Whether that be with us or another practitioner. Have pain? Take action! It is your body's way of telling you something is going on.
Need to get in to evaluate & treat a painful movement or injury?