How To Get Yourself Out Of Pain

This might be controversial!

In my experience many people who see a therapist (physio / osteopath / chiropractor / massage therapist) for back pain, sciatica, or other types of chronic pain or injury remain in pain to some degree.

Why?

Typically the therapist examines you, does treatments appropriate to their expertise and prescribes you some homework.

Now, there are 2 main problems with this scenario:

• You're a passive participant in the process - the treatments are often done to you with zero active input from you
• The homework often includes passive, static stretches that target single muscles or only 1 body part

Therefore, you're not really developing genuine self awareness or consciously changing the guarding, compensatory movement patterns that are leading you into pain. 

Have a look at this study by T.Mima et al:

You can see from the study results that:

• Passive movement resulted in activation of the somatosensory cortex only - you feel the sensations from the movement
• Active movement activated the somatosensory cortex, sensory-motor cortex, pre-motor cortex and cerebellum - you feel the sensations from the movement whilst simultaneously using the planning and movement centres of the brain 

This is huge!

With passive movements there's no connection being made between feeling the movement and actually doing the movement.

With active movements, you can feel the movement, connect felt sensations to the motor cortex, plan the movement with the pre-motor cortex and then execute the movement.

In previous blog articles we've looked at how the body moves in patterns involving multiple areas, such as the stress reflexes, and why traditional static stretches aren't that effective for relieving pain and stiffness long-term.

Now this study shows why passive movements and static stretches are flawed treatment protocols for rehabbing injuries, as well as providing a mechanism for how chronic pain leads to compensatory movement patterns that can lead to further pain and more injuries. 

The good news is that if you have created movement patterns that lead to pain, tension and stiffness, you can certainly learn to un-create it to get out of pain and increasing your mobility again. 

The BYB Method uses a somatic approach to bring awareness to how movements feel from the inside, whilst using pandiculation techniques to consciously create and then de-create muscle tension. 

This creates that all important connection between the somatosensory cortex, sensory-motor cortex and the movement centres of the brain that will help you to change the patterns that have led your body into pain, and learn new ways to move without pain again. 

As you can see from this image chronic pain has many underlying factors that need to be considered:

That's why the BYB Method also addresses the beliefs, thoughts and emotions that sit behind your movements and habits.

Physical therapy does have an important role to play in resetting structures that have moved out of their natural alignment. I find the eyes and hands of a good therapist very useful in helping to link what I feel happening in my body with their observations of what's happening physically to joints and soft tissue.

If we look at the above image again, you could say that physical therapy helps with the patho-anatomical and some of the physical factors.

The BYB Method helps with other aspects of the physical factors, as well as the pain / neuro-physiological and psychological factors. 

1:1 coaching would be needed to examine the social factors on an individual basis.

Can you see how taking an active role in recovering from pain and injury is so much more effective than simply sitting back and letting the therapist do all the work without ever really understanding how your body is responding to their treatments?

Link To Study

1) Mima T, Sadato N, Yazawa S, Hanakawa T, Fukuyama H, Yonekura Y, Shibasaki H. Brain structures related to active and passive finger movements in man. Brain. 1999 Oct;122 ( Pt 10):1989-97. doi: 10.1093/brain/122.10.1989. PMID: 10506099.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10506099/

NEXT STEPS

• Come to a Stretch, Yoga or Pilates class with me - here you can spend time observing how your body responds to different movements in a guided sequence of mobility exercises for the joints and core stability plus pandiculation stretches
• Book into the "Moving Away From Pain With The BYB Method", a 2 hour workshop showing you how to reduce chronic pain and release muscle tension so you can move with ease and joy again. Sunday 3rd September, 1pm to 3pm - click HERE for all the info (3x spaces left).
• Attend a half-day mind-body retreat - these are deeply relaxing, fun, social small group experiences typically held in various locations within easy reach of Worthing, West Sussex. The next one is on Sunday 3rd December,
• Subscribe HERE to receive "The Movement Chronicle", a weekly e-newsletter delivering mobility and pain reduction tips directly into your inbox every Monday morning,

To find out more about my classes and retreats, or to join my email list you can contact me via any of these channels:

• Email at norma.pearson1@ntlworld.com
• DM me on Facebook Messenger 
• WhatsApp message to 07801 867361.