So you have been through physical therapy, chiropractic, massages therapy, doing your stretches all the time. But those aches and pains never go away. What is happening here?
This is the question that really dug into my soul. I got so frustrated seeing so many of my clients still suffering from injuries, nagging aches and pains that never go away. Especially when they just came back from rehab. And either their condition is just “a little” better, stayed the same, or it felt good for a while but the pain came back. Why? What is going on here?
After networking and learning from over 30 of the best fitness, rehab and injury prevention specialists from all over the globe, I realized not one system works for everyone. That is ironically one of the things all the specialists agree on, yet many of us are fighting others on whose profession, system or technique is better.
So instead of looking at what was different in all of them. I put all their systems together and looked at what was similar.
That is probably what we should be focusing on in order to truly help people move better, feel better and get out of pain.
So here are the top 5 things that most health and fitness pros agree on in regards to pain management.
Stress
Stress is one of the biggest factors that cause pain, inflammation and inhibit the body to heal. Almost every non-genetic medical condition (eg. heart disease, weak immune system, cancer, etc.) can all be related back to some sort of stress. We all need to find some way to manage it. Whatever method works best for you, do that to help relieve stress.
Resetting the Fundamentals
Most injuries are caused by poor movement patterns. For example. We didn’t “tweak our back” because we picked up something heavy. We tweaked our back because we have been picking things up incorrectly over time, repetition after repetition, the back muscles got overworked, then it tweaked.
We didn’t tear our ACL in the knee because of jumping or cutting, we tore the ACL because our body doesn’t know how to jump or cut properly. Certain muscles were not working properly and other muscles were working too much, causing imbalances over time. And one day, the ACL tears. The list goes on and on. Everything goes back to the movement fundamentals.
The 6 Movement Fundamentals
Push, Pull, Squat, Hinge, Carry, Rotate. These are the 6 main movements that the body is supposed to do pretty well. As we age, because of lack of movement, strict workout routines or just plain ignorance. We miss some of them in our workouts and poor movement patterns develop over time — e.g. back pain comes from not being able to hinge properly when picking up something, knee pain comes from not having a good squat or rotational pattern, shoulder pain comes from not being able to push or pull well. The problem is you can do well in 5 of the 6 movement patterns, but the 1 that you can’t do well is probably what is causing the rest of your body to get injured or be in pain. Original Strength, Animal Flow, DNS, Foundation Training, Primal Movement Chains are all systems built to reset movement patterns that help bring the body back to “normal”. I combine all of these systems in my facility.
Lack of awareness
Not knowing how the mind and body are feeling. Sensory acuity is something we all need to build up consistently. We get so focused on the world around us that we forget to focus within. When we forget how to manage how we feel mentally and physically, our body falls out of alignment and pain, illnesses develop and we have no idea why. Resetting the fundamentals and relieving stress are awesome tools to help you build up awareness in your body.
Relying on others to do your job for you
Most trainers, Chiro’s, PTs, Massage therapists, etc., give homework that needs to implement into your daily routine (if they don’t, find someone else). Roughly 70-80% of patients/clients never do their homework CONSISTENTLY after their rehab so the pain comes back or doesn’t go away at all.
What we all need to understand is that professionals are just a guide to AID in getting better. We can’t do the work for you, unfortunately. We can help clients get out of pain, but clients need to train their body to be able to maintain it and remember how to STAY out of pain.
I really hope this article sparked your curiosity and helped you look deeper into what is happening that might be causing you or your clients’ body to be in pain.
Join Andy Hsieh for his upcoming webinar with MedFit, Postural Alignment from Assessing the Ankles, Hips and Neck
Andy Hsieh is the founder of Movement Reborn, an Integrative Movement, Mindset and Play studio in San Diego. Andy’s life long goal to live past 125 years old pain-free, continue teaching, motivating, and finding a way to bring down the worldwide obesity crisis by 20% in his lifetime. Helping people move better is the start. Andy is certified as a personal trainer through ACE, NCSF, NESTA and ITEC. He is also an ITEC Certified Sports Massage Therapist. His specialist education includes NKT lvl 3 (Neurokinetic Therapy), Stick Mobility, MovNat lvl 2 and Original Strength Pro.
Article reprinted with permission from Andy Hsieh.
