Pain is part of the human experience….
We have all experienced pain before, and will experience it again. A majority of us walk around with some degree of pain.
Although pain is common. It is not normal.
I want to try and paint a picture of what pain is and how to approach it. In doing so, the goal is to help you re-frame its presence and ideally overcome it much easier.
First and foremost, pain does not mean that you are injured. Pain is simply a request for change, almost like an alarm system. It is a message from your body that says “Hey! I don’t like this! Back off!” The presence of pain does not mean that you should stop exercise, movement, whatever, but it does present an opportunity to change how you are doing it.
Lets talk about this alarm system.
Your body is wonderfully complex. But at the same time, it is wonderfully simple. Like any other living thing, we want to survive. It is not good for us if we are dead. Survival is your bodies #1 priority. And your brain is an amazing computer that is constantly analyzing its environment and body. When it senses something threatening to its survival, it raises an alarm. This alarm can look like many different things. It can look like pain. But it can also look like weakness. It can look like muscle tightness, and it can also look like numbness. These are all methods trying to keep you from doing anything stupid. Picture it almost like a parking brake in a car. You don’t necessarily want to drive a car with your parking brake on. I mean, you can, but its not nearly as efficient. Our bodies are built to survive, not thrive. And some of us walk around with our parking brakes constantly on!
When trying to help people understand pain, I’ll often refer people to The Water Cup Analogy:
It notes that every person has a cup which is filled with unique stressors (bio/psycho/social) such as: stress, tissue damage, poor sleep, worry, fear, anxiety, habits…
Pain exists when all these things exceed the space in our cup. When we overflow, we have pain.
If we want to be out of pain, there are 2 options: either decrease your stressors, or build a bigger cup.
What are somethings we can do to decrease stressors?
There are plenty of things, and many should come at no surprise. Prioritizing sleep, nutrition, and mindfulness are pillars that make a substantial difference in decreasing pain.
How do we build a bigger cup or increase our capacity for stress?
The simple answer is progressive loading! Just like with your muscles – our bodies are highly adaptable!
Understandably, too much of a good thing is a bad thing. For example, if someone were new to weightlifting and attempted a 300# bench press – for most of us, that would go so bad! For a others, 300# could be a good stimulus to help their body adapt to getting stronger.
I’ll often tell people to find the hardest thing they do well and to execute consistently.
Movement professionals are highly and uniquely trained to help you both decrease your stressors and to build a bigger cup. IE if you are working out and have pain, your coach can help you modify to be more efficient, or help you scale while still getting the intended stimulus.
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When it comes to the journey of getting out of pain, be humble and curious. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to look weak when scaling an exercise. Don’t be afraid to move. Use reputable resources out. Learn your body well and listen to it!
At Linchpin Performance, we position ourselves as guides to help you get out of pain. We like to dig deep to find the true source of your pain. From there, we work together to address the issues that are needed to meet your goals. We teach you to move better and equip you to stay at the top of your game for life.
If you are dealing with pain and stuck. We’d love to hear your story.
