Become Pain Free
Almost all of us experience pain in our joints and muscles at some point in time. This can range from acute to chronic pain. When feeling acute pain, this is our body sending warning signals to change what we are doing or more serious problems will manifest, such as chronic pain or injury. But how do we know how or why we are feeling such pain? This comes down to movement and lifestyle factors influencing our lives in the musculoskeletal system. These factors include but not limited to your posture, moods, nutrition, job, daily activities and how you are moving in general. These factors produce imbalances in the body such as muscle weakness or tightness from either over activation or inactivation of muscle groups to maintain our movement standards we are held to.
The best medicine for these problems is exercise; intent and correct exercise that is. Knowing what muscles need to be strengthened and what joints need to be stabilised can go along way in reducing your risk of producing acute or chronic pain or injury. Prevention is key. A consistent and ongoing effort during exercise is needed to receive the benefits. Exercising on a weekly basis with the goal of increasing muscle strength and joint stability will remove the chances of pain being a real problem in your life. Now if you already have an injury or chronic pain, exercise is the answer for you. This doesn’t go without the correct intention and exercise prescription for your personal needs. Finding the right exercise professional can accelerate your progression and is important to assist your journey. Now let’s look into these factor for producing pain a little further.
Posture
When looking at wear and tear on the body, on the basic level, posture needs to be looked at to identify the possible causes. Common problems I see in my clients are shoulders rounded forward, spinal rounding and exaggerated pelvic tilts. With these postural imbalances comes joint and muscle pain. Over time this can cause wear and tear causing arthritis, ligament tears, tendonitis, muscle tears or sprains. So in regards to muscle and joint pain maintaining correct posture is critical to sustain functionality over the course of our lives.
Moods
There is a growing body of knowledge suggesting the body holds memories and feelings in the musculoskeletal system. Meaning if you are feeling heart broken for example, the posture of our bodies may resemble forward rounded shoulders, inward rotation of the arms and the cervical spine displaying kyphosis. This is just an example but it is interesting to see how our moods can change posture and therefore lead to muscle and joint pains. This is just the beginning of this topic of the subconscious mind manifesting into the physical body and if you are looking to know more in the area there are many books relating to the subconscious mind and body relationship.
Nutrition
It’s not a normal consideration when looking at musculoskeletal and joint pain to looking into what you are eating. The bodies ability to breakdown inflammation, heal possible injuries and general day-to-day recovery. So in short eating right for recovery and allowing the body to function optimally is important for reducing pain. Foods to look out for include high consumption of meats, processed foods, sugary foods and even vegetables that have been exposed to high levels of pesticides. Organic whole fruit and vegetables should be a foundation to your dietary intake, which allows is your body to buffer the pH levels around your body and maintain healthy bodily function. Eating a large variety of fruit and vegetables, minimal meat and processed foods you will give your body the best chances for it to thrive.
Job, daily activities and general movement
Our day-to-day life takes us, at times, into repetitive movements that are in awkward and functionally bad positions for our bodies. Whether it’s being slumped over an office desk working on a computer typing all day or digging holes, if the correct movement patterns and posture isn’t maintained during these activities we increase the likelihood of developing musculoskeletal pain. Repetitive movements in our jobs can lead to excess wear and tear although doing these movements correctly goes along way in sustaining structural integrity. Other ways to mitigate these potential problems on our bodies is to regularly participate in exercise to level out the imbalances created from our jobs and daily activities.
So if you’re feeling the aches and pains in your body, maybe a consideration to make is to jump into a fitness program that is right for you could change your life. Do this and you will reap the rewards!
Written by Brock McInerney
Personal Trainer, Planet Fitness Charlestown