Of a recent survey that I conducted of 70 individuals spanning many different ages and postcodes, I discovered that over 60% of you are living with some sort of chronic ache, pain, niggle, or old injury.
But only 50 percent of those people were addressing their issues with a long term healing approach.
A small number of people thought they just needed to rest and do nothing.
Which if you have an actual injury or broken bone, a time of rest is necessary.
But honestly... not too long.
The longer you do nothing for the weaker you get and the longer it will take to recover.
When a child breaks an arm from falling off the monkey bars they are usually put in a cast to allow the bones time to reset in the correct place. However, when the cast comes off, the arm is skinny and weak. Essentially this is what you are doing to your body when you don't use it. The weak arm doesn't come from the physical act of being stuck in the cast, it comes from the lack of use that it shrivels up.
So don’t put a cast on your body.
If you do have a break or serious ligament injury, listen to your doctor and take some time to rest, but as soon as you are able to, ease your way back into very gentle movement, the more muscles you can use in as many ways as possible, the more signals you have flying around the body keeping your blood flowing to the affected area and helping the recovery process. More movement equals more blood flow, more blood flow equals faster healing.
Some people were addressing their pains by seeing a physio, myo, chiro, or osteo and only trusting that professional to massage or correct the issue that way.
Again this is not an optimal way to address your pain long term.
Unless you have an exercise or movement program to accompany it.
Going to a health or massage professional even as often as once a week does not fix days and days of incorrect movement patterns. It is sort of like taking pain relief for a headache you got from banging your head against a wall. Yeah, the pain relief will stop the pain for a little while but if you are still banging your head against the wall the pain is going to come back.
If you have a good relationship with your physical therapist and they haven't given you any rehab or correctional movements or exercises to practice between visits maybe you can talk to them about it on your next visit. A one hour treatment or massage won't make up for the hours you spend during the week doing the wrong thing. The more you can do yourself each day the faster you will see results. Often working with a physical therapist and a personal trainer in tandem can illicit fantastic results, they can work together curating workout programs specific to your needs. Also, a personal trainer is usually cheaper than a Physiotherapist and they are there to walk you through every step of your workout if you are feeling too cautious to exercise on your own.
Some people were still exercising and just avoiding using the joint or muscles that caused them grief.
Doing their workouts at full capacity but refraining from using one or multiple areas of their body.
This only causes supporting muscles to get weaker, tighter, and more susceptible to injury over time.
As well as increasing your chances of either re-injuring OR getting a whole new injury from the imbalance this is creating in your body, it is a completely impractical and inefficient way to move on a regular and long term basis. The human body was made to move, made to hang from things and run long distances, and squat all the way to the ground and if you can't do these things PAIN FREE then you need to be addressing your mobility before you push yourself through your next grueling calorie-burning workout.
In my survey, I discovered that 98% of people were unhappy with their current body, so even though 60% of people were struggling with some sort of long term ailment almost 100% of people's goals were to lose weight.
What I am going to tell you next might be a little hard to swallow, but for the sake of you healing your body AND getting to the weight you want to be at you need to hear it.
If you want to lose body fat, the results come 80-90% from your diet.
So killing yourself in the gym for an hour, leaving pouring sweat, but also your knees, back, hips, ankles or shoulders are killing you IS NOT WORTH IT.
Whilst the increase in endorphins might make you feel good for a little while the calories burnt in that workout unfortunately are nowhere near as many as you think and definitely won't outweigh a bad diet. So instead of pushing your body through a killer workout for the sake of burning a few hundred extra calories why don't you slow down, listen to your body, and help your body heal.
You do not have pain because your body is failing you, You are failing your body! Pain is your body's way of trying to tell you something. It is sending you a message that something isn't working properly. It is the same as your engine light going on in your car! Sure you can just ignore it, but the longer you leave it without addressing the problem the more it will cost you when you finally go to get it fixed. But in this case, that cost is your body, not your car, you won't just be able to buy a new one if this one falls apart!
50% of those surveyed believed that light movement can help recovery and pain relief and this is the truth.
Most chronic pain is caused either by incorrect use of your body, or lack of use.
Sitting too long each day, wearing shoes that squish or lift your feet oddly, doing repetitive actions for a job or sport or a lack of daily mobility, and stretching.
Humans evolved to move in a great variety of patterns and ways and if you feel stiff or sore, all you need to do is work on it. It will take time and patience. Because if you have tight hips because you sit 8 hours a day 5 days a week at work, and your tight hips are causing you back or knee pain. Stretching for 20 minutes a day 3 times a week will not reverse the years and hours of tightening and damage you have caused. Try to do 10 minutes of mobility 3 times a day EVERY DAY, 10 minutes isn't very long and it's good to take breaks from the desk or the worksite. If you are worried about looking silly at work, honestly ask yourself if it's sillier to look funny stretching or to not do it and live a life of pain?
Depending on what sort of chronic pain you have will determine what mobility you need to do so you can talk to me or your chosen health professional to get a personalised mobility routine.
After reading the results from my survey I was honestly shocked that so many of you seemed to think that living with pain was normal, or that you had no way to control or fix the pain yourself. That you were willing to either deal with pain every day or to dish out money regularly to an osteo or physio rather than take control of your own well being.
If you don’t spend time on your wellness, you will be forced to make time for your illness. Being happy with your bodyweight might feel like the most important thing right now, but I promise you that being pain-free first will reap far more results long term. Imagine all the wonderful things you can do with a lifetime of pain-free movement.
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