Your Body Is Trying To Tell You Something!
There is nothing more frustrating than that nagging pain or injury that keeps coming back. It can disrupt fitness goals, derail leisure activities and make everyday life miserable. Many with recurrent pain or injury blame their body. "I've got a bad back that keeps going out, why
won’t it stay in?" "That’s my bad shoulder, it always acts up and aches and I can't sleep on it!” This kind of language places the reason for our pain outside of our control and renders us helpless. Usually, this is not the case!
We don't want to face the fact that we are
the captain of our own ships, and it’s our job not to steer them into trouble. Or, that our habits and lifestyle are what can make it feel like a sinking ship. We can’t just blame “getting older.” In many cases, our lifestyle and movement habits are overloading, weakening or injuring tissues and causing long term degenerative changes. Changing habits is hard. Having a guide, like a knowledgeable healthcare practitioner, to help you navigate your own personal journey to health is often the difference between reaching your destination and feeling lost at sea. Don’t just accept recurring pain and injury! Team up with a practitioner who can identify the causes and map out solutions based around your goals for your body and your life.
5 reasons for recurring injury or pain
Poor movement habits and posture. We are surrounded by poor movement habits. We see relaxation as slouching and sinking into our couches and chairs. Sometimes it’s a poorly informed movement habit, such as sitting up too straight to please parents at the dinner table or vanity causing us to suck in our stomachs, turning off our core (yes you read that correctly). Poor movement habits may not be the direct cause of pain and pathology, but they fuel the fire.
Poor conditioning. Life is an athletic event. Certain levels of baseline endurance, strength and overall tissue constitution are required to accomplish the things in our daily everyday routine. Even simple tasks such as navigating up and down stairs, picking up children, lugging groceries, vacuuming the house, all require baseline levels of physical fitness. When the activities of our daily life demand more than our muscles, tendons and ligaments have strength for, we begin to compensate (or overcompensate) and tissues can become overloaded and painful.
Poor Ergonomics. No matter your fitness level or your movement quality, you adapt to the environment you live in. Our jobs have become more sedentary. When you sit at a desk you can't help but morph into the shape of the chair and lean over your desk to focus on your work. Our necks are perpetually forward and flexed from computers and smart phones. Those lucky enough to have physical jobs that allow for more movement, often fail to place themselves in proper lifting or work positions and work stations are rarely at an optimal height.
Poor movement quality. In response to poor movement, conditioning, ergonomics and more, our bodies develop compensatory stability and movement strategies. These compensations result in muscle imbalances characterized by weakness of our core and tightness in our back, neck, hamstrings and shoulders, causing nagging muscle pain. Muscle imbalances overload joints, ligaments and tendons and over time can lead to degenerative changes to joints and tendons.
Repetitive overload. Sometimes, despite adequate conditioning and good movement habits, we can get overuse injuries. For athletes this may be throwing too many pitches or a putting in too many miles without adequate rest and recovery time. For the general population this can be related to work with repetitive postures or movements. When muscles fatigue they become weak and offer less stability and protection for our joints and ligaments.
Go find the solution, then own it!
Good health care providers treat people, not conditions. Taking time to identify all the factors in someone’s life takes effort by both parties. Working through a complete assessment to identify movement quality, conditioning level and ergonomics is essential. You can’t manage what you don't measure. When all the facts and factors are collected and considered, a personalized efficient approach for correction can be made. This can mean
education, manipulative therapies, therapeutic exercises, myofascial work, ergonomic counseling, strength training, yoga, Pilates and more. Whatever the patient needs and can include in their already busy life. This process is designed to empower you to right the ship, navigate the choppy waters of life and arrive at whatever destination makes you happy.
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