Chronic pain is a health problem, not a fitness problem

A person who experiences ongoing pain, is a person with a health problem. Not a fitness problem.

Many people with chronic pain try and fix it by increasing their fitness. They get trapped in this cycle because exercising helps them feel better temporarily. Why? Because it stirs up a bunch of sensory information and confuses the persons nervous system for a short time. This can inhibit pain. They get a short window of relief and then the pain comes back and they seek out their next aggressive exercise effort in the hopes of stirring things up once again.

These types of people literally become masters at this behavior! After a while it stops serving them. We are amazing adapters until we cannot adapt anymore!

Pain is your body’s alarm sounding trying to request change.

I know my fellow trainers and therapists know what I’m talking about! And, I guarantee you are all thinking of a specific client that does this routinely regardless of how hard you’ve tried to educate them!

It’s human nature to think that pain lives in the body part that you feel it in. It doesn’t. Pain is an output of the brain. Therefore, if your hip hurts you must have a hip problem. Right? Wrong! People always want a biomechanical explanation of their pain because they want to understand it better, which temporarily reduces the fear component associated with it. Biomechanical explanations for chronic pain can get people in trouble and cause them to make emotionally driven decisions about what to do next. Not good. I’m not saying there isn’t such thing as a structural issue causing pain. There is for sure. I’m talking more about chronic pain, in which case there was no serious injury event. Or maybe no event at all!

Health first. Movement second. Fitness last.

About the Author:

Taylor Kruse, recently featured in Men's Health, is dedicated to empowering you with the truth and tools for improved health and performance.

His inspiration stems from more than 10 years of education and coaching through systems like Zhealth Performance, The Burdenko Method, and various movement practices.