Pain & Injury

This article is being written in layman’s terms to help us understand a little more about some of the pain we have, how we get it, & what happens when that occurs. This may not seem very important, but I assure you that having an understanding about this, then the “Real” questions we want to have answered, “How do I get rid of this pain” and “How do I keep it from coming back”?

The first thing we have to do, is identify the kind of pain you have and if it can be worked with involving the muscles. Sometimes when we “Pick Up” a pain, we may not think of it as being muscle related. Answering some questions about your pain will help narrow this down. The Key Word here is, “Muscle Related”. Let’s talk about this for a moment.
Here is a short list of circumstances that may make you a candidate for Pain Treatment.
Circumstances and injuries that “Suddenly Appear”
1) I was in an accident and hurt my back, but that was several months ago and when I move certain ways I have local and shooting pain up and across my back. Most likely, the doctor has you on Muscle Relaxants.
2) I must have slept wrong or got up on the wrong side of the bed because 3 days ago this pain that is kind of sore, aches, and has a sharp kind of twang has not gone away.
3) I was working around the house, doing my usual bending, twisting & turning, when I must have bent over wrong because when I did, I felt something in my back and I could not straighten up normally. I had to help myself. Problem here is, this did not clear up and that was several days ago. I have to be careful now how I bend or pick something up. I am very guarded about this.
4) I am active and play in sports. I have the normal tired, sore muscles, but now I have a kind of pain that shoots across my back and down my hip. When the tired and soreness goes away, this remains.
5) I sit at a desk all day, working on my computer and taking phone calls. I got in a hurry to get up and go to the printer and when I came back I was feeling a mild pain in my lower right back area that was still there the next day. I took a hot shower that felt good but did not take this pain away.
Circumstances that keep repeating and bringing back the same pain
We are going to now talk about Repetitive Motions. If you get a soreness or pain in just one part of your neck, or your shoulder and neck is sore just on the left side are two examples. Or, how about an isolated area on your body that is always there or keeps coming back. Perhaps you hurt on the job but when you are home for the weekend, things get better. Did you somehow hurt yourself and this small injury is causing you to “Favor” a certain area, example like your arm or back and this in turn is causing you to move or walk differently?
Another example may be best described, “Reduced Range Of Motion”. Anywhere in the body! Some good testing is, “what movement can you not fully do anymore”? Here are some direct examples! I can move and raise my arm but not all the way. I cannot raise my arm directly over my head. Other variations of this would be moving the arm out from your side or directly in front of you, or can you raise your arm above your head if you had help?
Same goes for any kind of bending, twisting body to left and right, squatting, standing & sitting on floor and trying some stretches, bending forward & backwards.
These kind of questions do several things. Besides getting us to “think about” what is going on, maybe remember what it was you were doing that may have caused it, but also helps isolate the muscle or muscles in question. From then knowing what muscle, we know the orgin and insertion points along with what range of motion that muscle does. When you as a client now know how that muscle moves, chances are you will then remember or narrow down what you did to bring it on.
Self Evaluation
Like the example above where the person felt pain & discomfort on the job but home for the weekend things got better? Repetitive Movements, almost all day long and others like this. Some changes need to be made to break up this cycle. We bring a lot of this on our selves. The term we use for this is called Perpetuating Factors. It is amazing if we could get rid of or alter these factors, you may find yourself free from your pain. Making you aware of what you do that brings this on, self-educating yourself on this will bring about some radical changes. The things we do to bring on ourselves, also have the same results in our first 5 examples. Perpetuating also means “Ongoing”. Whereas in those examples, they are more like a single deed or act as an injury, kicking a soccer ball by overextending, or twisting too far and trying to bend at the same time, or a real good one is, “Not stretching your muscles before working out in the gym”! When the muscle is not gently stretched and we suddenly want it to do more, that causes over extending. Prevent injuries and muscle pain, do your stretches and do not short change yourself. These are many of the little things we sometimes may not think about.
In conclusion of this first Article, I will ask the question, “What would be the one single thing we could all do to help prevent overextended muscles, having sore, tired muscles at the end of the day, feeling sluggish, finding it harder to do some things we haven’t done in a long time? You all know the answer, and all you have to do is, “JUST DO IT”! EXERCISE! Your best investment in your health besides taking your vitamins is get involved, get motivated, join a fitness club.
One final comment. As we get older, our lifestyles adjust. Many of the things we used to do we either do not do them or we don’t do them very much. And when we do some things that we haven’t done in a long while, we say we feel it the next day. Some of our muscles are “Out of Tone”. From age 35 and on, this starts to set in. Especially for all of us that have “Desk Jobs”. Exercise prepares our muscles to withstand some of those “Sudden Twangs or injuries”, helps us not feel like we want to retire because of “Feeling Old” or not moving around like we should. It is not too late to do something about it. Some exercise clubs will let you try it out free for a week or a small fee. Lets exercise “All our muscles” and feel better.
In the next article we will talk about what these sensitive pain spots or points are we pick up. If you can point to them, you got them. And when rest, exercise, hot tubs don’t get rid of them, what can we do now.