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.   

 

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!  

IF YOU’RE MOTIVATED:

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