Because we want everybody to be pain free, we thought we’d share two of our top tips to help you become your own physical therapist.
#1 Don’t be a pain chaser
When l was studying to become an athletic therapist, one of the most commonly used terms (besides “it depends”) was “find the cause, treat the cause”. Seems pretty simple, right? My elbow hurts, so the cause of my pain is somewhere in my elbow. If my foot hurts, something must be wrong with my foot. Not exactly, though.
We refer to that notion as “chasing pain”. In may cases the chronic pain someone is experiencing is not necessarily connected to the root of their problem. In the example above, you could treat the elbow until you’re blue in the face. That person’s symptoms may subside for some time, but without fail, they will return.
Let’s talk about the posterior muscle chain(the muscles that run your whole backside) to paint a better picture. The entire posterior chain is connected – from the muscles on the bottom of the foot all the way up to your neck. This means that you could have a dysfunction way up at the hip that is affecting your knee or foot. Maybe your back pain is stemming from weak glutes that aren’t stabilizing the hip joint causing pull on your lower back muscles .
Don’t chase your pain – spend some time with a professional so that they can find the root of the problem and equip you with the knowledge you need to get better. Want to dive a little deeper? Check out our blog on Referred Pain, we put together a lot of interesting research to demonstrate how what you see is not always what you get when it comes to pain in that blog.
#2 Make a small investment in your health
A physical therapists job is to not only assess and treat, but also to educate. Most times, we can catch the root of a persons pain and at the very least minimize it after 3 sessions (keep in mind that treating acute injuries takes more time). During those sessions, we are not only treating the dysfunction through manual therapy, but we’re also teaching our clients how to stretch and strengthen on their own.
By investing a small amount, you are learning to support your rehabilitation on your own as well. A great therapist will get you pain-free, but they will also provide you with the tools you need to stay that way.
If this seems too good to be true, come and chat with one of Sandbox personal trainers, we would love to help guide you towards your pain-free life!
If you’d like to dive deeper and see what practical solutions a professional personal trainer could put together for you then your timing couldn’t be better! From now till’ January 15th, we’re selling Holiday Tune-Up packages for 50% off, plus we guarantee your satisfaction! Learn more here!
