Pain 101

There are many ways to cause pain. There are many types of pain. But in our particular case we are interested in musculoskeletal, articular/joint, and neurological pain. Pain is also completely relative. But how your body responds to a stimulus resulting in pain is the same. You get inflammation and pain!  There is a neurotransmitter called ‘Substance P’(… any takers on what “P” stands for?) as well as other neuropeptides, that are released, in the presence of a painful stimulus, that turn-on the nociceptor (pain nerve) a nerve that would otherwise be dormant or unstimulated.

Our nervous system functions on a feedback loop, so if there is more stimulus, then there is more product. Decrease the stimulus, we decrease the product – this is a positive feedback loop. Simply speaking, to decrease the pain we have/perceive, we need to reduce the stimulus or the thing that’s causing us pain. One of the most overlooked therapies is pain-free range of motion. If you have pain, but “It hurts when I do this repetitive movement…” then STOP and get your coach to look at it!  It shouldn’t stop you from doing other things that cause pain.  Keywords, Pain-free, meaning, the motion that’s causing pain should be stopped or modified and scaled appropriately (again discuss with the coaches around you).

Why? Our bodies and joints were designed to move. Our organs move, our circulatory system is always in constant motion. There is movement of nutrients and toxins in and out of our cells all hours of the day.  We wouldn’t be alive if we weren’t moving.  In a clinical setting, its imperative that we maintain range of motion of the joints and the tissue involved with an injury.  The intention is to prevent the tissue and joint and all the musculature to contract on itself by facilitating motion by moving the limb/tissue/joint.

What does that mean to us?

The more common cause of pain in our particular cases are repetitive stress injuries. Which, if not kept in check, results in injury.  Check with TBear, he knows all about tendonitis, tendinosis and tendinopathy cases.  According to David Magee a professor in the Department of physical therapy at U of A, there are 7 levels to the “Severity of repetitive stress Injuries”:

Level 1: Pain after specific Activity

Level 2: Pain at the start of activity usually residing with warm-up

Level 3: Pain during and after activity, not affecting performance

Level 4: Pain during and after activity, that DOES affect performance

Level 5: Pain with activities of daily living (ie. walking to the store, reaching for object, walking up stairs)

Level 6: Constant dull aching pain present at rest and does not disturb sleep

Level 7: Constant dull aching pain present at rest that DOES disturb sleep

Don’t feel like you have to label yourself.  In fact, you shouldn’t!  You will only perpetuate more pain by telling yourself that you have pain everywhere.  Let it serve as a guideline potentially showing you how severe the state of your condition may be. Let it serve as a guideline as to when you should or shouldn’t see a professional.  You may have a Lvl 4 here, a Lvl 2 somewhere else, a lvl 1 over there, and maybe… just maybe… you have a lvl 5, 6 or 7.  If you lose sleep due to pain, then definitely seek help.  Losing sleep will perpetuate pain too!  But please don’t mistake free information for professional diagnosis and begin self diagnosing yourselves.  The purpose of this is to draw attention internally and asses whether or not this “pain” is worth it all.

Your Healing Hands, CJ

Warm-up
20 floor angels
12/12 laying windmill
12 push back push ups
12 squat to stand

Skill (week 6 of Shoulder Press)
A1 5×4 press (65,80,90,105% of week 1)

A2 5×5/5 banded shoulder press

Team Workout – 3 person teams (preferably 2-6 at a time &/or 3 per side)

One individual after another performs:
– 20 Wallballs(20/14) then immediately
completes ten(10) 20 meter shuttle runs

inside touching hand to floor past the 20m chalk mark
then 2nd team-mate goes then 3rd.
Rest 1 min past slowest team and repeat. 
Let’s get every team going 3 times minimum – 5x maximum depending on time.
Post your teams lowest plus highest time combined to the front board – for an evening photo.

Athletes – watch yourselves as you turn-around and coaches show how to get low and pivot correctly.