Lets talk about Pain Part 1 Compassion for Pain

This is Part 1 of a 3 part series discussing pain. I will disclose that I am not a medical doctor but a fitness enthusiast, personal trainer, and have attending courses, seminars, listened and read through resources regarding this topic. I am also lucky to have worked with clients suffering through pain and have aided them in managing their pain to lead to a more active life. These are my own thoughts and if you have personal questions feel free to email me or message me on Instagram at fitnessonthefly. 

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I describe pain as short term or ongoing discomfort felt by an individual. 

This is a broad statement that covers a variety of types of pain and conditions that bring about discomfort in a person. So why am I talking about it? Because pain and discomfort can be a persons barrier that stops them from activity. Even if we know that exercise is good for pain management, getting someone to start exercise has to do with how pain affects our mental capabilities, can limit what activities we can perform, and depending on the type of pain can be something someone struggles with on top of everything else going on.

All of this to say pain of any kind is not something to scoff or push off. It is not an indicator of how well exercise is giving you benefit. At some point in our lives we have felt pain. What is as important as the compassion of listening to those in pain so we can attempt to understand what their experience is, is understanding what is happening and what we can do about it. 

There are whole courses centred around the study of pain and I can't get into details in a single blog so to simply things, pain is an alarm system. How strong that alarm goes off can be felt by severity of the pain and the duration you experience the pain. Your bodies system of pain could be compared to the system your body has to register thirst. You may be thirsty because you are low on necessary fluids but you could also feel a thirst "alarm" due to seeing an advertisement about a drink, be surrounded at a party with beverages, and other social or mental factors. 

So if this alarm system is going off for acute reasons, that can deter someone from doing movement. If it hurts your back when you bend forward to tie your shoes then you will not want to bend forward at all. If your pain alarm is chronic, on all the time, then your brain is occupied by that pain on top of everything else you have to do in a normal day. This means you may need more assistance than others to start an activity routine until the benefits can be clearly noticed. 

To summarise, pain is a sensation your body uses to tell you something is happening out of its normal. Depending on severity, it can limit your activity level in the short term or long term. The first thing we can do as compassionate trainers is listen and try to understand what a person is going through so that we can help manage as many barriers in the persons life to work with their pain and hopefully reduce the pain completely or make it manageable for them to live a healthier life.    

Stay tuned for Part 2 where I will be discussing acute pain, usually felt during training, and how we can manage it. Part 3 we will talk about chronic pain and conditions people live with and tools to manage. 

Thanks for reading and Stay Strong!