What is pain?
So let's continue talking about PAIN.
Most people suffer from chronic pain daily. Chronic pain is the kinda pain where you say you have bad knees and they just always hurt but you don't have an answer to why.
Chronic pain is typically because of over use but today it's more because of inactivity. Most Americans sit for most of the day. People are becoming more sedentary.
As a trainer I hear a lot about back,knee and shoulder pain but most people don't have an answer to why they have pain. Avoiding movements isn't the answer. Sometimes it's looking on how your moving because that could be a clue why you have pain.
Now lets talk about how to fix this the pain. You can start with addressing mobility. Mobility is the ability to move full through range of motion being able to control and stabilize. Lack of flexibility with affect your mobility using leading to over compensate somewhere else usually causing you pain. Poor mechanics poor mobility. When your body can't move optimally your body has to compensate to find the easiest way to move. Your body will learn how to move with this imbalance. Just because your body can work around injuries and get you to move doesn't mean it's optimal. When 1 thing goes wrong it bleeds down the chain. If something is wrong with your foot, it will goto ankle, and then the knee and before you know it you have pain in your hips or back.
Stretching can increase the ROM. But doesn't mean you have ownership over that new range of motion. Now that you have it you need to learn to connect to the new range and strengthen it.
Static stretching can be used for immediate pain relief. Say you have for example tight hamstrings that could be making your lower back hurt. So if you laid on your back and did some stretching for the hamstrings. It sends a signal to the CNS to tell it to relax. Often the muscles are tight because the body thinks your in danger, it's weak or it over compensates.
Self myofascia release is another great way of getting rid of pain. This is synonymous with foam rolling. You'll see a lot of people roll out their IT bands because most people sit all day so that area on the quad gets tight. But because that is tight typically you'll experience knee pain. The thing is that just because you have pain in your knee doesn't mean that's the problem. The problem here is that the tissue and muscles are tight and it pulls on the knee.
If you don't address the issue and ignore it you'll make it worse. There's a reason your body sends you signals and pain warnings. You need to listen to your body and try to fix the problem with soft tissue work and mobility. But movement isn't the only reason you might experience pain.
Believe it or not it can actually be related to diet! Say your back hurts but you don't why. If you have a larger stomach and it's putting your ab muscles on stretch it's going to have a weak connection. If your gut becomes inflamed it pushes out all those core muscles and they aren't able to connect and stabilize. So sometimes it might just be cleaning up somethings you're eating. You can always try an elimination diet and journal how you feel having that food and not having that food in a day so you have feedback. Having a higher amounts of Omega 3s can reduce inflammation but something like processed foods can cause it. Along with overeating.Food can definitely cause a role in pain, which causes you to move odd, which results in poor mobility.