Will I need to do exercises?
Yes. Home exercise and self help pain relief strategies are an essential part of recovery from pain or injury. A practitioner should help develop an effective self help program and work out strategies to incorporate exercises into daily routines.
How often do I need to exercise?
This depends on the problem. Most need to start little and often to get things moving again and ease inflammation. For example: if a joint is very swollen and stiff or a muscle is very achy, then small, hourly movements will help. Once pain settles and movement frees up, exercises can be gradually cut back to once a day.
How to get my child/teenager to exercise?
Understanding the cause of the problem helps a little. It is important to find ways to incorporate simple exercises and stretches into day to day routines, make them engaging (for example work with coaches to incorporate their program into a training drill, and link regimes CLEARLY to the goal. And, if possible get the sports coach or trainer on board with neruomuslcar exercies that wil help the whole team/class
Will I have to give up my work/sport/hobbies?
Recovering from pain is unlike recovering from a dental filling. It is not a case of curing the problem. It takes time to recover from the effects of pain and /or stiffness and/muscle weakness on muscles. If pain has been present several months it can take three months to fully recover (the same as after surgery).
To reduce pain most need to undertake a home exercise program and adjust their lifestyles or modify training or sports program. It depends entirely on the circumstances and the individual.This can range from playing alternative quarters/a month out of sport/decreasing time spent standing/sitting watching sport/music . As pain decreases and strength is recovered, most activities will be gradually reintroduced. Go too hard too soon and pain will return.
What if I am already exercising?
The exercises needed to recover from pain or injury are highly tuned, so may be different to a normal fitness program. If exercise/sport is causing pain, training will need to be modified to a pain free level.
It is important to incrementally progress exercises after pain or injury. Rehabilitation should be carefully paced to regain full fitness strength and flexibility without causing too much pain. Exercises are usually changed each week. This process of cutting back, calibrating then introducing the next level of exercise until full strength and flexibility and capacity is attained, is individually prescribed every time pain occurs. Generic exercises from a friend or the internet seldom help.
What about no pain no gain?
There are some circumstances when pain should be pushed through, but for the most part it needs to be respected and minimized. We will help you understand what type of pain is safe to push through and when pain is harmful. It is not always intuitive.
Will I have to change what I am already doing?
Probably. In most circumstances pain is a warning that an action or task or posture is being overdone or that the body lacks the strength or flexibility or agility or endurance to do what is desired. If these warning are ignored, the body becomes sensitized, (the pain warning ramps up) causing pain to either spread or become intense in one spot, sometimes freezing or stiffening or weakening a joint. This spread and/ or intensification becomes increasingly difficult to resolve. Sessions will help establish what is currently triggering pain and find ways to either modify activities so they do not cause pain, or build up strength and endurance needed to undertake the task/activity without pain. Sessions will help you understand how to match your body's capacity to your demands. The mismatch between what is (often unrealistically) expected of bodies and their ability to deliver can be central to most persistent pain issues.
How many sessions will I need?
Usually 4-6 sessions with a professional shoudl be adequate to help regain movement and establish a self help program. More sessions may be required if pain is complex/ long standing/ intense or if it is challenging to modify lifestyle/work or undertake a comprehensive home program. It can be hard to maintain the motivation (and finances) needed for lengthy rehabilitation. Self help strategies are critical.
How long until pain eases?
If due to a recent flare up or a new problem, pain should settle within a week or two. However, it can take months to change widespread or lingering or intense pain.
Studies show that the most crucial factors are not the degree of damage seen on x-rays nor how severe an early injury / fracture was but, instead, the duration and intensity of pain felt. Other important factors include how many other sites of pain are also active in the body(yes: an achy knee ultimately does affect that stiff shoulder), and the past history of pain. The stronger and longer pain has been present and the more sites are affected by pain, the longer it can take to ease. It is usually one step forward half back until all elements of rehabilitation come together (pain relief/inflammation control/self management /learning to live within capacity /preventing pain recurring and, where feasible, building capacity).
It’s not insurmountable.
Can I be cured of pain?
Some pain is essential. How else would anyone know when their body is being pushed beyond its capacity? Learning to listen to the body and understanding when to push through pain and when to ease back is an essential part of the rehabilitative process.
Even once resolved, pain, stiffness and/or swelling can return if , once again, your body is pushed past its capacity. Understanding how pain works to protect the body and how to respond to early warnings will minimize the chances of it recurring. Offering a complete cure is unrealistic. This can be a hard lesson to learn.
What other techniques are used?
All practices should use a multi-modal individualised approach which includes 1. soothing 'hands on' techniques for pain relief, 2.exercise prescription and 3. MANY self help strategies. The evidence suggests that simple cost effective pain relieving treatments such as heat packs, massage rolls and taping are effective if combined with individually prescribed and progressed exercises and activity modification.
What about laser/ultrasound/TENS and other electrical modalities?
Any modality that delivers pain relief (from massage to manipulation to laser to heat packs) is helpful but all effects are short lived.Pain relief must be combined with an self help home program and pain prevention. There is no conclusive evidence that expensive electrical treatments are more helpful than simple strategies such as heat packs/massage gadgets.