So do you push through an injury or rest up?
One of the questions that I’ve asked myself on behalf of many clients over the 16 years I’ve spent treating injuries. It seems simple now with experience and intuition and a DEEPER understanding of what it takes for the body to recover. But how do you know if you’re not an injury management specialist?
On one side you’re thinking ….. “it’ll be ‘right. Just keep using it and it’ll get better.”
On the other side you’re thinking…. “this thing isn’t getting better and it’s been 4 months now!”
Well – to be able to make that important decision, first you need to answer the obvious question which is “Is this good pain or bad?”
That’s the part that’s easier said than done. Let me try to give you a criteria for each
Good and Bad pain
Good pain – well, simply put, it feels GOOD! Like a stretch or a massage that’s getting into a tight spot, or a muscle that’s been working and has post exercise muscle soreness. That’s a good pain.
Bad pain – yep, you guessed it – it feels BAD! Bad pain is really the sort of pain that we should NOT be pushing through. And to be honest, this is where most people get things wrong. We tend to drift towards the idea that the pain will simply get better if we USE the area. And whether it’s an inability to accept we are incapacitated or just plain misinterpretation … or BOTH… for some reason most of the time we make little injuries last longer by persisting with the very movement that makes things worse.
A normal injury will be inflammed from anywhere between 2 days to 1 week. After this, if your pain is still sharp and ..well…BAD, then you’re most likely doing something that’s irritating it. Finding out what that is might be a challenge but let it be known that if you don’t crack the case, you are most certainly not going to move forwards too quickly.
Advice in a nutshell
My advice to clients over and over is not to worry about what to do , worry about what not to do.
Once you work out how to UNLOAD the area, then the bodies natural healing process can take place. What you need to do is provide that required ENVIRONMENT for it to heal. This is really the fastest route to full recovery. Rest is underrated. The body needs to UNLOAD then gradually RELOAD. Missing this first step just means you never get better.
