Acute Pain; Motion is lotion

You know that instant you KNOW that whatever movement you just did was the “wrong one”? Where your back [insert other joint] is now hurting a ridiculous amount and you didn’t even DO anything?

What is your first method of action?

Often I hear laying down, resting, heating pad, (maybe) ice, NSAID, etc. What if I told you that movement could actually help more?

Don’t click away just yet! Have you heard “Motion is Lotion”? A lot of physical therapists use this saying and it sounds fun when you say it out loud — give it a try — but it also makes a lot of sense.

In a basic anatomy class they may not fully touch on this, but the joints in our bodies (including the spine) require MOVEMENT to create the lubrication —for lack of a better term— to move freely. When we do not move we actually create nowhere for that lubrication to go. It becomes stagnant and stiffens up the joint.

In the example that we started this blog post with, a sudden onset of pain from a movement that does not usually cause pain is typically a muscular problem or in the instance of the spine example it could be disc related. If disc related I highly recommend the McKenzie Method as this has saved me multiple times when I’ve “thrown out” my back untying my shoes and needed to lay down as I was unable to stand up straight. If you have never heard of this method I can give you a brief overview here:

The McKenzie Method was a method founded in New Zealand by Robin McKenzie, PT in 1950-1960s by accident. The purpose of this method is that the individual can “treat their own back” through repeated movement. Typically there is what we call a direction preference for the spine/joint that we focus the repeated movements in. The method is easily searchable and can be used. I highly recommend seeing a physical therapist with training to help speed up the process of choosing the right direction.

There is one example of how movement can improve pain for when the spine is to blame. When it is a muscular pain in the back, extremity, neck, etc. moving with intention and not “pushing through” pain is how we can re-wire the brain and the pain cycle. As often times these acute episodes “without cause” are associated with increase stress periods and loss of focus on intentional movement in life. All of this feeds into what we call The Chronic Pain Cycle (blog post coming soon). Chronic pain is described as a cycle as we are feeding in stressors and then physical pain occurs and we try to continue to push through like we do with the mental pain continuously telling our brain that we are not safe and xyz hurts every time. When in acute pain using intention and not pushing through your pain is how we teach the brain that movement does not cause pain each time we do it — avoiding the chronic pain cycle.

Have I convinced you that motion is lotion yet?

Please reach out with any questions, I’d be happy to dive deeper with you on this topic!