Aches, pains, and injuries occur as we age. We can consider ourselves diagnosed with arthritis at age 30. Arthritic symptoms such as pain in the neck, shoulders, back, hips, knees and wrists are prevalent in our society. Overuse injuries from poor posture in our everyday lives can affect the health of critically significant joints in our body from sitting or standing in poor form. Some of us must live with traumatic injuries from our past lives of athletic activities or from an accident that left us with the remnants of a surgical correction causing weakness, pain, or a dysfunction in the body’s movement. These conditions that come along with age hamper our way of living. Everyday hobbies can be a challenge because of the thought of pain. Recreational physical activities such as hiking, golf, or pickle ball can lose their appeal because of how the body may feel due to the pain of arthritis and the rate of recovery. Even helping friends and family move things can be halted by weakness from the effects of previous injuries and degenerative joint symptoms. The traumatic physical effects of life happen regularly to the general active population. However, all these symptoms are curable with proper awareness of treating these symptoms effectively and efficiently.
Our personal training clients in Napa frequently share how their aches and pains in their body effect their lives. Our job as life time fitness coaches is to help them live stronger, happier and mitigate symptoms of pain in their bodies. An important factor that we need to know first is how these pains have originated. Questions we ask our personal training clients start with, “How are you treating this pain?” “Are you currently doing anything to help with this pain?” And one of the most important questions, “How often are you treating these pain-like symptoms?” As pain management coaches, we first need to know what dose of pain management are currently being taken manage pain from injuries and degenerative joint disease.
We coach our personal training clients in Napa that treating pain and injuries is the same process as taking anti-biotics to treat strep throat. When we are diagnosed by our doctor with a case of strep throat, we are prescribed an anti-biotic to take three times a day for a week or so. If we don’t keep up on taking this dose of anti-biotic and complete the prescribed treatment, the strep throat infection will remain and will make our lives unpleasant. The same procedure of having a case of debilitating joint pain or injury recovery goes for an individual seeing a physical therapist. The physical therapist will give a 4 to 6-week protocol of coming in to perform a rehab prescription of treating the affected area of the body. Icing, heat therapy, range of motion exercises, and massage therapy are some basic techniques applied to the affected persons injury. If the person does not go to the physical therapist for those 4 to 6 weeks, the likelihood of that person improving their physical ailment is significantly decreased. Just like not finishing anti-biotics for strep throat, not finishing a physical rehab prescription will lead to suboptimal recovery.
An important life time fitness coaching lesson is to become aware of the pain and discomfort we feel in our bodies and avoid letting the body get so bad that we must go to a physical therapist to receive a 4 to 6-week recovery plan. We can use that month and a half to live a healthy and fulfilling life. The solution to avoiding the detrimental effects of injuries and annoying arthritic conditions is to listen to the pain signal sent from that specific part of the body and apply a recovery prescription. If your knee hurts, make sure to treat them regularly. Perhaps wrapping ice and elevating the knee for 10 minutes in the morning and the night everyday for a week would help alleviate these pain-like symptoms. If you have a sore neck from poor posture at your desk job, follow a prescription of stretching routine and application of a topical analgesic, such as arnica or CBD oil, every morning and every night for a week. When you have lower back pain, perhaps swallowing some homeopathic anti-inflammatory supplements such as tart cherry extract or turmeric daily for a week could help. These prescriptions must be executed every day, not every now and then. If you treat your physical pains in an “every now and then” approach, you are going to get “every now and then” results.
The research is continuously being done on what the best type of rehabilitative treatment is the best to maximally help joint pain and arthritis. However, if we treat our symptoms with a dose of a specific self-care prescription, the likelihood of feeling better and living pain free is significantly increased. Don’t just expect pain in our bodies to go away, approach them with a consistent prescription of injury prevention techniques.
Sean McCawley, the founder and owner of Napa Tenacious Fitness in Napa, CA, welcomes questions and comments. Reach him at 707-287-2727, napatenacious@gmail.com or visit the website napatenaciousfitness.com.
