Have you ever been doing an activity and felt a pain somewhere and decided that you were just going to work through it? 

How long does it take you to seek assistance after that first notion that something hurts?  A week?  A month?  Several months?

How do you know when you should keep going or should stop? 

I have some basic tips/rules for clients to follow with regards to this question.

 Pain is a signal from our body that we are doing damage to it – most of the time anyway. 

When you touch something that’s hot, you get a pain signal telling you not to touch something hot.

When you step on something sharp, you get a pain signal. 

 Do you keep touching the hot object and stepping on the sharp object? 

So why when you feel a pain in your body when you’re exercising or doing an activity, would you keep going –

especially if it was getting worse?

The pain is telling you to stop! 

 

 

 

 

What about if you have pain and when you continue to do the activity it actually starts to get better? 

 

 

Well maybe this time this is what it needs.  I had this experience when I had developed a tendonitis in my shoulder.

Doing a particular stretch in an exercise class I noticed and increase in pain. The more I stretched, the better the

 shoulder felt. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What’s going on? 

I suspect scar tissue was forming that needed to be mobilized.  After an injury where there is

inflammation, scar tissue forms. It forms in an unorganized manner and we often need to move the

injured area in a gentle manner in order for it to heal in a more organized fashion. 

Another example of this is of a friend who had a sore back and was thinking of not running that evening. My suggestion

was to do the run but if the pain got worse, then to bail. The back pain improved.  Or there was also the time after

picking up an extra bucket of strawberries, I couldn’t straighten back up. It wasn’t a pretty sight watching me getting

 in and out of the car. Instead of not going to do my swim later on, I decided to try it. By the time I finished the

kilometre swim, I was pain free. 

Picking strawberries is a bending forwards (flexion) activity that can aggravate a disc or muscles. 

Swimming is more of backwards bending activity (extension) and doesn’t have the

compressive forces from gravity.  The change in  activity direction was helpful in

counteracting the pain-causing activity. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pushing through an activity when you have experienced an injury can take it from a grade 1 injury to

a grade 2 injury (more damage) or worse. 

 

What this means is that you will have a longer time to heal and get back to your normal activities.

 

 

So why would someone not stop when it hurts? 

You want to finish the race. 

You want to finish the game. 

You don’t want to look weak in front of everyone else in the group. 

You don’t think it’s really that bad. 

Let me tell you a couple of stories about pushing through the pain.  A runner who was trying to finish a marathon after

experiencing pain in the pubic area ended up having to take a year off running due to the stress fracture in the pelvis. 

 

 

Another athlete

 

had to have surgery for pain in the front of the shins after continuing to play a running sport.  Okay, then there’s me

 who persevered through a game of hockey because I was the goalie (a whole other story…) after pulling my

hamstring.  It’s still a bit sore eights months after. 

 

 

I read an article awhile back about shoulder injuries and recovery. The longer someone waited to seek treatment, the

 longer the treatment took (more sessions equals more money).

There’s a natural healing process that does occur and the pain in most cases will gradually improve if you are not

doing any aggravating activities. But if the injured area is not improving on a daily basis, I would recommend getting

it assessed and treated—this is within the first week of the injury.  The inflammation stage should only last 24 to 48

hours—this is when you have pain even at rest.  But remember that even though your body will heal itself, there may

be muscles that have gone into a protective pattern that need to be released or joints that may be stiff and tight, or

scar tissue that is forming.   Knowing what to do to help  your body heal the best is important.  What activities should

you do and which ones do you avoid? Getting the area assessed early can save you a lot of aggravation and money.

 

To summarize, don’t keep doing the activity after the injury if the pain is getting worse.  But if the activity is helping

improve your movement and reduces your pain then it’s okay to continue provided it is not more sore after the

activity.  We are not talking about post-exercise muscle soreness, but pain from the injury.  Remember too that the

delayed muscle onset soreness (DMOS) that arrives the day after vigorous exercise is an indication of inflammation of

the tissue and recovery time is needed. 

Get an assessment done early by a therapist who can give you advice on what you can do to manage your symptoms

and help with your recovery. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t wait until you are desperate!