PAIN

I could write 10 different posts about pain.  But I am going to just express my relationship with it at the moment. My words may have a little more passion and bias behind it as I am on my 2nd day into tearing my meniscus.  

Pain is a signal that something needs to change. 

There can be many ways that change needs to be implemented.  The most obvious being a biomechanic.  A way that you are moving is not optimal for how the body wants to move.  Even this has many layers.  In this post, I will only speak to some points about pain in the body relating to body “deficiencies”. 

We will take my situation, for example.  Because I will not be able to straighten my leg during gait (walking),  my entire body is going to have to compensate in alignment.  My glute/hip flexors won’t operate as they should.  My spine will be pulled in weird positions.  My core muscles will alter.  And my head is going to tilt so it can still try and level with what I am looking at.  Since I am a professional, I know what movement to prioritize, and can keep tabs on what I will have to rehab once my leg can function properly. But unless you have a perfect relationship with your body, which no one does, there will be a biomechanic change. it will be hard to realize if, let’s just say, you forget how to use your core efficiently side to side.  You heal from your injury, but you are always a little rotated in your spine due to a change in core movement. Half a year later, you start to get lower back pain.  This pain came from moving inefficiently from a past injury.  This is where seeing a specialist is important.  Someone who can catch the major compensations and get you to function to a more normal state.

Another way that pain can come about is the injury itself.  Once again, working with a professional is important here from day 1 of the injury.  Yes, rest is important. But it is only part of the equation.  The normal American strategy is drugs and rest.  That is usually an improper plan of action.  The pain in the body is important to navigate what is happening.  There needs to be constant communication between yourself and your nervous system (where pain communicates in your body).  When working with a professional, it is important to ask “What movements should I do that will be safe and also give the most communication to my injury”.  Then you work with the pain.  A general rule of thumb is to do a few reps of movement and see if the pain subsides or gets worse.  Or, hold the position for 10 seconds and see what the pain says to you.  

In my current position, where I can not comfortably straighten my leg, I am spending a total of 60 seconds slowly straightening my knee to its max position 3 times a day. I will say, getting into the position hurts… a lot. My nervous system is so scared to allow it to happen.  But my nervous system and I compromise, communicate, adjust, rest, work hard and come up with a strategy to improve the injury.

My next example connects to previous points I have made.  Pain in a body part can be stemming from something somewhere else.  There is a classic example of pain in shoulders from a lack of movement in the middle spine.  This  is an example of habitual movement causing pain somewhere else in the body.  I get many patients who work at desks, and when they chest press or do overhead movement, they have pain in their shoulders.  I get questions like “is something wrong” “will I injure myself” “do I have arthritis”.   What I usually find is there is limited activity in deep hip flexors and middle spine.  These tissue limitations pull the body so that the shoulder joint runs into an improper position.  The pain signals are trying to share information, but it is really hard to listen unless you know what to look out for.  

In all of these situations, pain is not a scary thing.  It is a signal for you to seek help and move your body optimally.  We need to be friendly with our nervous system.  This means we have to be more acquainted with our bodies.  That usually involves two important aspects.  1) Being nice, patient, and interested in your self/body and 2) Reaching out for help to better understand your body.  This will lead to more proprioception (awareness of where your body is in space. A topic for a different blog post) which is ultimately the leading factor of healing.  Although I did not touch on it in this collection of words - physically addressing this pain will lead to a better relationship with yourself emotionally/spiritually as well.