Why Is It So Important to Eliminate Activities or Movements That Cause Pain When Rehabbing an Injury?
Hey Folks!
Quick little tip and post today!
“Avoid Activites, Movements or Motions that Cause Pain or any significant Discomfort.”
If your anyone that is suffering from an injury, it’s important that you avoid any movements or motions that cause pain or make things worse. Now, this may seem pretty basic or simple, but lots of people tend not follow this. Instead, they continue to do activity thinking they will get BETTER. However, most of the time these people end up making things worse and then they complain, “Why aren’t I getting better?” and then it could get worse were there complaining to their physical therapist, chiropractor or whatever health care provider they may or may not have. What ends up happening is the physical therapist, chiropractor or health care provider may end up getting a bad rep because now this so-called ‘client’ isn’t getting better but yet they are continuing to do an activity that they shouldn’t be doing. The ‘client’ that then complains goes and tells all his friends or family how bad this so-called PT or chiropractor is, when in the beginning if you listened to the health care providers advice, you wouldn’t be in this position. Rather you probably would be making significant strides in your recovery and recommending how good your PT or chiropractor is (Not saying all PT’s or chiropractors are good and always provide the right advice but for the most part, the ones that do give excellent advice, know what they’re talking about). Ultimately, as you can see this is ‘not’ an ideal scenario for either party. However, this post isn’t about the relationship between the client and health care provider (that can be saved for another post), rather it’s the elimination of movements or motions that cause pain!
For instance, take a patient with discogenic problems. The individual is a male that is 22 years old and has recently been diagnosed through MRI scans with an L4-L5 posterior-lateral disc bulge. The bulge is causing the individual significant pain in their lower back and down their right leg when they attempt to bend over or sit down
So, now that we know the individual’s problem. What do you think should be a part of their rehab?
Well, firstly, it’s the elimination of any activities, movements or motions that may cause pain or make things worse.
So, in that case, we would want the patient to avoid any forward bending and sitting.
Now, forward bending can be a lot easier to eliminate than sitting, but sitting can be a tough task to avoid. However, if the patient wants to make the QUICKEST and most EFFECTIVE recovery without having any further issues, they need to avoid sitting as much as possible. Sitting is a demanding task for our lower back tissues as it ultimately creates a pressure force that places further stress on the spinal discs. Ultimately, that L4-L5 will continue to feel pressure from that sitting task, which can cause the disc to bulge further out and cause more significant problems. The next thing you know, you’re in the hospital getting surgery. Not something you want, nor something I would like to see.
Also, the same thing could apply to any other injury. For instance, take an individual with a rotator cuff tear that has an insufficient range of motion through their shoulder.
Should they perform activities that require a full range of motion or as a therapist are you going to have them place their shoulder in positions that cause them pain?
The answer is simple. No!
If you continue to place that shoulder in ranges that the individual is not ready for, your only asking for WAY MORE ISSUES. NEVER something you want. Therefore, remove any activities or movements that cause pain to maximize the recovery process.
So, with all that being said, when it comes to the rehab process of an injury. Avoid the activities, movements or motions that cause pain or significant distress. Rather work in the ranges that don’t cause pain and slowly work yours into more following activities.
I hope this helps clarify a few things for anyone that is suffering from an injury 🙂
Ciao,
Remi
