Why this blog: This is a bit of thought experiment. Bear with me.
ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT PAIN, INJURY AND RUN TRAINING
Tissue injury/failure is considered to be a cause of running related injuries and pain. It is assumed that building tissue strength will decrease our injury risk. Hence, we say things like injuries occur when Load exceeds Capacity. Yes, there are issues with the term Capacity but that’s another blog
Traditional physiotherapy has often looked to find “deficits” in someones function and then suggested those deficits are what is causing pain. Deficits are typically any type of physical functions or attributes that deviate from averages. Typical examples being altered postures when you are standing that deviate from neutral (e.g your head might be forward, your pelvis might be tilted more anteriorly than average, some muscle is weak or range of motion is less than average).
Read MoreThis is going to be a three part blog. The first two parts will explore the reasoning why stiffness/tightness is often irrelevant for pain. The last blog will discuss times where stiffness and mobility might be relevant for pain and injury.
Muscle and joint tightness can be viewed as two things:
Read MoreAs someone with persistent pain (and a few traits that predispose me to pain) and a therapist for 20 years I am a proponent of resuming meaningful activities and exercise even when its painful…sometimes. I think that for a lot of people with persistent pain it is not only safe but its actually the thing that could help them most with recovery.
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