Pain
I get asked all the time about what different aches & pains in the body mean, all kinds of aches and pain. First off, I do not have x-ray vision, nor am I am Doctor. Having said that there are big differences between different kinds of pain in the body. Cleveland Clinic wrote a nice article in regards to what different pains in the body mean and was part of the reason I decided to write about it. The other reason, in a matter of a couple days the following 3 stories happened and it is not unusual for me to hear these kinds of stories every single week. I am going to try and use these stories to illustrate some points about pains in the body. I would also like to say pain is a very subjective thing and what is painful to me, might not be to you, etc. I heard a great description of serious pain and it went something like this, if you need to immediately do whatever you can do get away from that pain, that’s serious. All other “pains” in the body are up for discussion.
I am going to start with a story about someone I work with regularly. She is middle aged and has been doing yoga with me for 10 years. Like everyone else she has the usual aches & pains, but rarely has mentioned anything with her back . We always start by talking and I was told about some back pain. I listened to everything and asked some questions to further try and understand what was going on. She was able to walk around no problem, but sitting in certain places and ways were not comfortable. She iced and did some gentle stretching prior to seeing me. We started by laying down on the back and doing some very gentle movements and I continued to ask lots of questions. My very strong hunch was she needed to do some strengthening. When I first suggested it, she immediately said no way! I promised we would start slow and gentle and when I mean strengthening in this case, I mean bridge, cobras, down dog. Little by little we built on the gentle moves and repeated things several times, each time making sure things were feeling ok and even feeling better as we progressed. In about 30 minutes I knew we were on the right track and she was feeling better and better with each repetition and doing some moves that require more from your muscles than just stretching them. The end of the session we iced the area. She told me she felt it almost back to normal.
I realize it seems counter intuitive to do strength when something in your body is achy, but this is part of the process when something in your body is feeling painful. Step by step, little by little you have to determine how bad and what to do, if anything. Strong muscles are an important part of keeping pain away. I mentioned some easier strength moves above, but things like planks, side planks, and lot of other things like that are what I do at least once a week, more like twice a week to keep my aches & pains away. The below article has some great examples of what to do when your feeling pains.
Here is another story about pains and issues in the body. I was recently speaking with an old friend, (middle aged) who always has “issues & pains” in her body. She told me she has tons of stuff going on in her body and how many different things hurt. I told her I understand, being middle aged, I have my own stuff. She said, but you always feel pretty good in your body, and I told her its because I do a ton or work to make it feel that way. Stretching alone is not enough, that my foam roller, self massage balls, etc. and all the time I put in, is what helps me feel good and continue to be as active as I am. I told her I spent 30mins rolling the night before. She told me how much it hurts when she does it and I said what does that tell you. Every single person I have ever worked with on the foam roller says it hurts at first (including me). She said, of course I understand all that and I said I have been telling you all this for years. When we got off the phone I thought about it and thought, she understands, but still does not do any of the things I suggest. Some people just don’t want to put in the time it can take to relieve an achy, over worked body. I get it, but unfortunately there is nothing I can do for someone who is not willing to put in the time and do the work.
One more for now, last night I was with a long time student (middle aged) and he immediately told me he had some serious neck pain. He uses the word painful right away when describing different sensations in his body. I told him we needed to re-think the word pain and reframe it. I told him about a scale idea, where 10 is pain so bad you would do whatever you needed to do to get away from it and 1 is all feels good. I then asked what the number was initially and I was told a 3/4. This is a very different understanding of “pain” then telling me his was in really bad pain. By the end of the session, he was a 2!
The thing is and I mentioned above, pain is subjective and open to many different ideas and ways in which we feel it and deal with it. As someone who works with people every week who tell me they feel some kind of pain, it is important to differentiate and be careful and specific with words about how things feel in the body. I think that being uncomfortable in certain movements/activities makes people think its painful. Being uncomfortable and it being painful are to different things. The foam roller is one example, it can be really uncomfortable at first, but it’s not painful in the sense that you would do whatever you can to get away from it.
My other take away is that some people just don’t want to put in the time and work to do what it takes to have a body with as few aches & pains as possible. I get it, the time, and work it takes is hard. For me personally it is so worth it. I love being really active and I hate feeling aches & pains, so I do the work. I’m not always perfect and completely on top of it, but I do the best I can and it really helps.
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/2016/09/is-your-exercise-causing-good-or-bad-pain-how-to-tell/