Understanding & Managing Pain.
What’s actually happening when we have pain and what do we do about it?
I could probably write an entire book (and there are entire books) on this topic. What I want to do today is to fill you in on some of the simple reasons you experience pain and then what you can do to overcome it. In this case I’m not talking about the type of pain that you experience after a traumatic event or injury. I’m talking more about the type of pain that has slowly come on over time, or a pain that comes on during a long event or something you wake up with the day after doing something hard or new (or maybe you slept wrong, getting older is hard right?).
First and foremost, it’s important to understand “What is pain?”.
I’d like to tackle what pain is not, first. Pain doesn’t automatically mean structural damage has happened to whatever area of your body hurts. Meaning, because your knee, low back or shoulder hurts, it doesn’t mean you have harmed something in that area of your body. You can actually experience a lot of pain without any serious harm happening to a joint, tendon, ligament, disc, etc.
Pain is simply a signal. It’s our body's alarm system. It’s really attempting to protect us. Warning us when we may have pushed something a bit too far or, maybe a bit more specifically, when at any given moment in time the stressors we are placing on our body is more than we are currently able to handle. That might lead you to think that it’s just related to your body's “physical capacity”.
However, when I say stress I don’t just mean physical. Have you ever been super stressed at your job, dealing with lack of sleep and then slipping up on your nutrition a bit due to that? This is a classic cascade of events that is really just stacking stress.
Then you head out to do the same ride at Wanoga or Phil’s or do the same workout in the gym you did last week and all of a sudden.. Your knees are more sore and achy than normal or you strain your shoulder doing something that wasn’t even hard a few weeks ago? It wasn’t just because you’ve gotten weak or you aren’t cut out for riding hard or training hard anymore. It’s just that enough stress stacked up and your body is now trying to send you signals that it's getting a bit overworked.
This doesn’t mean STOP or avoid either of those things. That’s actually the last thing I’d tell you to do.
What do we do in that scenario?
Start out by taking an inventory of where you’re currently at. Taking a step back and being objective about your current situation.
How stressed have you been lately?
What’s your nutrition been like?
How much sleep have you been getting?
How much activity have you been doing lately?
Have you been staying hydrated?
Some of these things you can likely make a direct influence on quickly to help your situation. Others.. Maybe not. And that’s ok. The goal is to figure out what the most important thing to focus on is at this moment.
It might mean working on stress management, prioritizing better nutrition, figuring out your sleep routine to help with recovery, or simply adjusting your current training load temporarily (adjust not “just resting!!”.
These are the questions that I’m asking my athletes and clients to navigate pain. Of course we are going to get into the nitty gritty of what’s going on with the current pain point from a diagnostic standpoint. Whether that's finding an area that we need to improve capacity on or something you can do to improve your flexibility/mobility to reduce strain to an area. However, if you don't address your overall training load (and find ways to keep you moving while you deal with pain) and the other lifestyle factors, we are just asking for that area to keep becoming annoying whenever stress is overflowing.
To recap here:
Pain doesn’t automatically mean structural damage, it’s simply a signal.
Stress comes in many different forms (it’s not just physical stress that influences pain).
Start by taking an inventory of the various stressors that are present in your life and finding the most important first step you can take to bring it back under control.
Don’t “Just Rest”, find what you can do to keep training/enjoying all of your activities/sports.
If you find yourself feeling stuck or unsure of the next best step. That’s where I come in. I’ve helped many people in Bend, Redmond and Sisters overcome pain and continue to train and enjoy all of the amazing things Central Oregon has to offer without taking a week or weeks off.
You shouldn’t be losing out on fun or training progress due to pain.
Do you have questions related to how to improve in any of these areas? Wondering what it takes to actually improve your capacity and strength to avoid injury? That’s where I come in.
Click the link below to sign up for a free consultation call so I can get you back on track!
