Acute and Overuse Pain Reduction

After working hands-on with clients for four years, I can start to see patterns of dysfunction when they pop up. Most of the time these patterns become clear when the client begins to notice aches and pains that weren’t there before.

Have you ever had a sore shoulder for two weeks even though you don’t remember hurting it?

Have you ever thrown out your back doing something you do every day like grabbing a pan from under the stove?

These instances of pain can be acute or overuse injuries, and they may have the same solution.

Step 1:

Find out which muscle(s) are over-working.

Sometimes muscles become more or less connected to the brain. Muscles that are more connected become facilitated and wait at the ready to do tasks that should be a team effort.

Step 2:

Find out which muscle(s) are under-working.

Through daily movement routines, we may find certain muscles less connected with the brain or inhibited. When this happens, other muscles have to pick up the slack.

Step 3:

Release the over-working muscles, and activate the under-working muscles.

Usually this means manual therapy for the painful area followed by isometric activations of the synergists and/or antagonist muscles. The only time that releasing the over-working muscles is ill advised is when those muscles test weak.

Often when using this system pain will decrease immediately, but sometimes it takes homework to retrain the under-active muscles to function properly again.

Email me if you need help with this at info@keylifestylesolutions.com