Here are 5 things that are helpful to know after your Initial Assessment .
1 – You May Feel A Little Tender But That Should Soon Pass
Your assessment will have involved some movements that you may not have done in a while and you may have recieved some hands on treatment. As a result, it is not unusual to feel a little sore afterwards.
However, don’t worry as this usually eases within 12 – 24 hours. Clients often tell me that it can a day or two after treatment until they started noticing changes in their pain so don’t panic if you don’t notice changes straight away.
2 – Check Your Email For Your Exercises
Videos of your exercises will be sent to your email after your session. If you don’t see them check your spam or junk folder in case they have gone there. If you don’t get them then send me a message and I will resend them straight away.
Also, please note that while the exercises can be challenging to do, they should not be painful to do or cause a big increase in your pain afterwards.
If we are to tae a pain scale of 0 – 10 where 0 is no pain and 10 is maximum, then a low level pain of 1 – 3 is ok to exercise through. Anything above is too high and I don’t want you to push through this.
3 – Should I Be Moving Or Resting?
A bit of both to be honest and this will depend on your injury and level of pain. But here is my advice.
Rest from the movements or activities that aggravate your pain and continue with any movements that don’t.
Please note that if your injury is very recent (acute) there will be an inflammatory response occurring in your body to allow the injured tissue to heal. This will cause inflammation and usually, pain.
While rest can be necessary try to NOT sit or lie in the same position for too long as you may stiffen up and find it very uncomfortable to get moving again. AIM to move or change position at least every 30 minutes to limit this happening.
4 – How Often Should I Do My Exercises?
The exercises I ask you to do are aimed to reassure your body that it’s safe to load move certain joints and muscles again. Therefore, a really good praactice is to fit a few minutes of the exercises into your day whenever is possible. If this is not possible, aim to do them twice a day. Morning and evening works well.
Here is an example of how you can fit in certain exercises as you go about your day.
Squash an orange under your foot every time you get up off a chair to engage your leg muscles.
Practice your back relaxation exercise every time you have to bend down to put on your socks or tie your laces.
Bend you knees and relax your back when reaching down to the floor.
5 – Goal is to reassure your nervous system.
Pain is an experience that is created in your body by your own nervous system. Does this mean the pain is not real and is all in your head?
Definitely not!
But it does mean that it the pain can be influenced by what happens inside head. i.e your thoughts, feelings and emotions.
So, despite their best intentions is not often not wise to take onboard advice from your family, friends, social media or Google that can make you more fearful or anxious about your pain, and is therefore unhelpful.
DO practice some calm breathing if necessary, try to keep a good sleep routine, get in some fresh air , movement and eat well whenever you can.
These will all help to keep you nervous system feel safe, which will help to calm your pain and get movigmore easily.
If you have any questions, let me know by email or call the clinic.
Regards
Derek
derek@midlandsphysio.ie
0906466761