“The pain will go away on its own”
“If I just stop going to the gym, it will get better”
“No pain, no gain” “Pain is weakness leaving the body”
At On the Go Physical Therapy, we hear statements like these from friends, family, CrossFit athletes and clients all the time. Maybe you’ve been thinking this yourself.
The Body Is Resiliant
Our bodies have an amazing ability to heal. Have you ever had a callous rip during a workout? Within a week, it is usually all healed up, right? Does that stop you from coming into the gym and working out the next day. Nope, you just slap some tape on it, put on your grips and move on. When it comes down to it there really isn’t much difference at the cellular level between a callous and the muscles, tendons, ligaments, bones and cartilage in the rest of your body. Our bodies are continuously repairing and healing, just at different rates depending on the extent of the injury and the tissue or bone affected.
“So you are saying the pain will go away on its own?”
Maybe yes, maybe no. The injured tissue will heal over time, but often it can be more sensitive or weakened if not properly loaded during this healing period. This could potentially lead to pain lasting even after the tissue issue has been resolved. A skilled physical therapist can help you learn how to modify your workouts, load the tissue early and progressively and prevent complications down the road when you try to jump back into CrossFit, running, or any other activity you enjoy. This means that you can come back from your injury stronger than you were prior to your injury.
“What if I just stop going to the gym or doing the activity that aggravates my injury?”
There is nothing inherently bad about the activity that is aggravating your injury. Our bodies are meant to do all kinds of activities and be in all types of postures/positions. Sure it may be helpful to pause an activity that is making symptoms worse, but only for a limited time so that you avoid overloading the injured tissue. This does not mean stop being active. It is way more important that you continue being active for your CARDIOVASCULAR HEALTH and in order to stave off chronic disease. Not a single person is dying from low back pain or shoulder pain, but shockingly 70% of the world IS DYING FROM CHRONIC DISEASE. A skilled physical therapist can help put the fire out on your pain all while keeping you active in doing the things you love. Be wary of doctors and other medical professionals that tell you to stop doing an activity or tell you that you WILL NEVER or SHOULD NEVER do “xyz” again. That’s usually bad advice and most of us wouldn’t listen to them anyway.
“No pain, no gain” “Pain is weakness leaving the body”
Should you avoid all pain no matter what? No, current research shows that there can be some benefit to painful exercise, but when we get into these painful episodes we need to identify what is off and what got you into this predicament in the first place. Usually it is one of two things. You are doing TOO MUCH TOO SOON and your body has not adapted to that activity. You are essentially OVERLOADING your tissues and tissues do not like that. The other factor can be your lifestyle habits are off: poor sleep, diet, high stress levels, overall body inflammation. These things need to be discovered and addressed or you just keep adding fuel to the fire. If a change isn’t made, you run the risk of further injury or you end up turning this acute episode of pain (short period of pain) into chronic pain (long period of pain).
Contact Travis or call/text (781)691-4378 to learn more about how you can put out the fire on your pain and stay active through injury.