Are You Pushing Through Pain?

We all have been there, we’re half way through our run or lift and we feel some sort of pain. It could be a sharp pain, dull pain, radiating pain, or some form of pain. We know that pain shouldn’t have been there, but we just chug along. Once we stop, the pain is gone and we think all is good. Next thing you know that pain comes back a few hours later, so we take some Advil. Next time we go to exercise that pain happens immediately but we continue along anyway. Then at the end of the workout we take some Advil and think all is normal. We continue this cycle until the Advil no longer works the same and the pain gets stronger. Pain is not weakness leaving the body, pain is the way the body tells the brain something isn’t moving right. 

Why it Matters

When pain happens we need to assess why it happens. Think back to that workout, when did the pain start? Was it a certain movement? Was it the intensity? Was it the weight? Don’t just think of the moment of injury, think about the day. Did you not get enough sleep the day before, did you not eat your first meal, were you stressed out, did you drink enough water? Whatever it may have been, pinpointing the cause will help give you a better understanding of why the pain happened.

Now just because you caused pain doesn’t mean you caused damage. Pain should be used as a guide, when you feel the pain ease off it. When pain starts don’t think that you need to stop. Once you have figured out what the cause of the pain was, it’s time to pivot. If running is causing you pain, try jogging. If jogging causes you pain, try walking. Make the exercise or movement less strenuous and see how you feel. We don’t want to stop exercising because of pain, we want to work around the pain.   

Next steps

Once we have figured out what works best for us to stop the pain, we need to figure out how to stop it all together. We want to get back to what we love to do without any restrictions. The best course of action is coming in to get assessed! With our help we will be able to properly assess what is the cause of the pain and how to treat it. Maybe the pain was from an instability in your low back. This pain can radiate down your leg or even affect your opposite shoulder. The body is an interconnected compensating network, it’s primary goal is to keep us up right on our feet. If that means making a muscle do something it doesn’t normally do, it will sacrifice it. A lot of times we like to look at the site or pain rather than the area around it. Here at Scordilis Chiropractic we can properly assess and figure out what the best course of action is. This way we can get you back out and doing what you love!