5 Effective Ways Of Mitigating Pain & Moving Forward.

Instead of focusing on what the reason, cause or pathology is, treat the pain itself.

Modern pain science show us that the best approach is to not aim to rid yourself of all discomfort and make a goal of being pain free, but to instead aim to improve your quality of life day to day and do more of what you enjoy little by little. Think less about decreasing pain and more about increasing what you like doing.

Here are some general tips to help those who are interrupted by pain:

1. STAY WELL HYDRATED   A well hydrated body contributes to happy joints, bones, joint capsules and allows tissues to retain their valuable slide and glide properties for ease of movement. Good hydration aids recovery from injury and supports less muscle fatigue after exercise too.

2. MOVE  Movement is the balm, the salve for pain. Movement with some pain has more favourable outcomes than total rest. You do not need to push into pain, just try and continue your daily life, knowing that evidence based research still supports this approach.

3. STRESS & SLEEP  Sleep is a valuable part of our bodies ability to repair damage, heal and renew. Sleep crucially supports the nervous system too and fatigue and worry feed pain so find stress busting techniques that work for you. We can unlearn patterns and become less sensitive with time and training.

4. LEARN ABOUT PAIN  Many outdated ideas around pain still persist. Debates around imaging, operations, injections vs physiotherapy and movement regimes continue so take control of your pain situation by reading and learning about up to date modern pain science. Even learning how your own language about yourself and the words your chosen trainers use can directly influence your pain perception. Learning both the simplicity and complexity of pain science is empowering and a key, respected ans recognised step to mitigation and management.

5. FORWARD FOCUS  Reframe your pain by learning to do more without increasing pain, rather than purely focusing in the pain, its levels, changes and fluctuations. Doing more without increasing pain is recognised improvement and helps shift pain from being the centre of all attention.