The 4 Biggest Challenges to Injury Recovery

I recently asked "If you've ever been injured or stuck in pain - What's your biggest challenge in trying to recover?"

Here are the answers people gave:

• Being patient and allowing my body to heal
• Knowledge on how best to manage it
• Not listening to what the doctors say you will never be able to do again
• The mental part of having to rest up and rehab properly

The pressure of having to keep going financially was also mentioned.

Do you agree with these answers? Would you add anything else based on your own experiences?

Let's dive into each answer more deeply, and then I'll provide a solution so you can fast track your return to fitness safely and confidently.

Challenge 1

"Being patient and allowing my body to heal"

Not being able to do the activities and sports you love can feel frustrating and depressing. Perhaps part of your social life revolves around these hobbies, so seeing less of your friends adds to your sense of isolation, loneliness and low mood.

There can the added pressure of staying afloat financially if you have an active job, or your injury prevents you from doing your work properly. For example, a hairdresser with tennis elbow may not be able to hold the hairdryer comfortably or a nurse with chronic back pain who can't bend or lift whilst on duty.

Or maybe you're a parent or grandparent and your pain is affecting your ability to look after and play with your children or grandchildren. You may not have the luxury of being able to rest up and heal properly,

I believe a major issue is the gap between moving from treatment (doctor, physiotherapy, osteopath, chiropractor, massage etc) onto a fitness programme.

I meet a lot of people who have fallen into this abyss. They've started to feel better after their treatments, and then attempt to move on a fitness programme to rebuild their strength and movement, only to suffer a relapse of pain or another injury.

Then they return back to treatment, feel better, try to get fit again and get hurt again. They get stuck in this cycle, repeating the same steps over and over, and recovery feels like an endless stair climber where you never quite get to the top.

No wonder they get impatient, frustrated and low!

If this is you, know that it's NOT your fault.

So many supposed rehab and mobility exercises I see that promise to get rid of your back pain, tight hips, frozen shoulder, are actually way too advanced or complex if you're trying to transition from treatment to fitness, you have chronic pain or a long-term injury.

All these exercises do is to reinforce compensatory movement patterns from your injury, or start new ones. Not exactly helpful when you're trying to get better!

There's a massive gap in the health and fitness industry where people can go to transition safely from treatment back to feeling strong, healthy and fit again. This prolongs the time it takes them to recover and get their bodies back to full function.

Challenge 2

"Knowledge on how best to manage it"

There's so much different advice out there on pain and injury recovery, a lot of it conflicting and out of date. It's so easy to feel confused and overwhelmed about what's the best thing to do to feel better.

Eventually you fall into 'analysis paralysis' and end up resigning yourself to "just getting on with it and living with the pain". You may take painkillers to manage the pain, but then have to deal with the unpleasant side effects of these powerful drugs. 

Many people I talk to spend their days looking for and trying all different kinds of solutions, like supplements, straps, supports, magic insoles, orthotics, creams, injections etc. It's a time consuming, expensive and, often, soul destroying pursuit.

I was chatting with a Pilates participant after class about her bunion toe, plantar fasciitis and tense calf muscles in her left foot and leg. 

She'd been prescribed industry standard calf stretches, wall sits and squats to ease the pain in her heel and strengthen her leg muscles,

Unsurprisingly she's still in pain and limping visibly. Her calf muscles feel horribly sore and tense along their entire length.

This links into my previous point above, where many rehab exercises are too complex or advanced, especially where you've been in pain for more than 3 months,

I also need to warn you against hopping from one treatment to another, as this creates confusion in the body, nervous system and mind. A confused body and mind typically is a stressed body and mind. 

Stress is the enemy of healing as it puts you into either a state of 'fight or flight' or 'freeze and protect'. All of your energy is then diverted into keeping you safe, rather than being channelled into repair and recovery.

Challenge 3

"Not listening to what the doctors say you will never be able to do again"

This is a big one!

I don't blame doctors or health professionals here, as they need to be cautious in case their advice leads to their patient hurting themselves or worse.

Also medical language is usually formal and has long, scary sounding words. MRI and X-ray reports can make for dismal reading.

 No wonder, so many people come away from their consultations feeling pessimistic about their chances of getting better. 

Catastrophising about pain and injury is an established factor in prolonging chronic pain and long-term injuries. 

A few important takeaways to consider here:

• Doctors are very knowledgeable about managing disease but they're often not experts in exercise physiology and movement. 
• Doctors are also not fortune tellers!
• Your thoughts have real power - you create your own reality through your beliefs and perceptions. If you think it and believe it, so shall it be.
• Your body has an innate ability to heal - what may have been the case 1 or 10 years ago may no longer still be true. 

So whilst it's important to listen to your doctor's advice and not to stop treatment without prior consultation, also remember that no doctor can know what your future holds.

Ultimately you are the architect of your life and master of your health.

Challenge 4

"The mental part of having to rest up and rehab properly"

I think there's a big elephant in the room, where the mental health aspect of an injury isn't discussed or addressed.

An injury is sometimes described as a trauma to the body, and it is traumatic.

Not only in the physical sense of tissue damage, but also strong emotions that arise, like fear, shock, anger, grief, frustration and sadness.

If a part of your identity is being a fit, strong, active person, being incapacitated can make you feel lost. Perhaps you have a job that you love and are proud to do, and being signed off injured means that your life loses purpose and meaning.

A sense of loss is a natural reaction to being injured or in chronic pain.

Not being able to work because of pain or injury adds financial pressure, and can force you to pushing through the pain barrier even if you know it'll delay your recovery.

All of this adds mental and emotional stress to the physical trauma of the injury, hampering your body's ability to heal and further delaying your return to fitness. And the longer your recovery takes the more stressed and depressed you get, setting up a vicious, downward spiral,

The Solution

• Create a smooth, progressive pathway from treatment -> therapeutic movement -> fitness, so that you can successfully undo old, compensatory strategies and restore freedom of movement which reduces pain long-term
• Stop relying on outdated industry dogma and a cookie cutter, 'one size fits all injuries' approach to rehab 
• Cultivate a somatic, internal focus and move away from using an external, outcome based approach
• Focus on what your body CAN do at that moment in time, rather than what you can't do 
• Acknowledge your emotions and develop nervous system resilience to manage stress better and boost the body's natural ability to repair and heal

 If you're now thinking "well, that's great but how can I actually do this?", I've developed a system called The Befriend Your Body (BYB) Method that covers all of the points above.

There are 4x pillars of The BYB Method:

1. Body
2. Breath
3. Be
4. Bond

1) Body = Therapeutic movement

Small, gentle, movements that encourage increased sensory awareness of where tension is held in your body and practising consciously releasing that tension. 

I use pandiculation techniques to restore neural connection to and voluntary control of muscles. 

A lot of chronic pain comes from muscles bracing and guarding to protect an injured area, even after that part of the body has healed. These involuntary and unconscious muscular contractions limit movement, so you feel stiff, tense and sore. Your limbs might feel heavy as the muscles pull and drag on them.

Muscles that are braced and guarding can seem weak, but actually are very strong. They're just unable to provide full power and are fatigued from being stuck in continuous contraction. 

The movement explorations I use help people to find ways to safely move their body without a flare up of pain, building confidence along the way.

2) Breath

Breathing is a simple yet powerful tool in healing and developing nervous system resilience to stress.

I expect you've heard that breathwork is an effective technique for relaxation, sleep and stress management - all of which promote recovery and healing,.

But did you know that deep nostril breathing also reduces inflammation and oxidative stress in your cells?

In the BYB Method I use an extremely simple breathing exercise called Heart Breathing". It's different from the traditional Yoga Pranayama techniques, and aims to nurture positive, heart-led emotions such as gratitude, appreciation, caring and love.

These high vibration emotions naturally help you to feel calm and relaxed, shifting your nervous system from sympathetic (fight or flight, anxious, angry) to parasympathetic (rest, repair, digest).

How you breathe also influences your brain waves, moving from beta (highly alert and vigilant) to alpha (calm consciousness) through to theta (deep relaxation).

3) Be - Mind

The Be pillar of The BYB Method focuses on your mind, thoughts and beliefs.

Deep seated, unconscious programmes run undetected, governing your daily habits and choices. These are embedded into your brain through your early childhood experiences up to the age of 7.

Noticing your movement habits and your thoughts about your body helps you to bring conscious awareness to these old mental programmes and beliefs.

If they're no longer true or helpful you can release them and move on to creating a bright new future of your choosing.

4) Bond - Connection

Humans have evolved to seek safety in the company of others. We're naturally social creatures, even the most introverted of people have a need for some social interaction.

The human nervous system is constantly scanning the environment for potential threats, but also for friendly signals of safety and connection from other nervous systems,

There's intriguing new research that the brain waves of a group of people in the same room begin to synchronise. This is a natural phenomenon called entrainment. 

Do you recall a time when you were utterly engrossed in a musical performance, or totally carried away by the enthusiasm of your favourite teacher at school? These are examples of when your brain has synced with that performer or teacher.

Creating a supportive, safe community environment facilitated by the instructor / coach leads the whole group into a place that promotes deep relaxation and healing.

The BYB Method provides that safe transition from treatment to fitness so you can get back to work, sport, exercise, looking after your children etc without a flare up of pain or another injury.

It's not a quick fix, suppress the symptoms approach, but it will fast track your progress by breaking that vicious cycle of treatment -> feel better -> exercise -> relapse of pain or injury -> back to treatment and repeat over and over.

Because The BYB Method focuses on developing self awareness, sensory awareness and self agency it's completely personal to you and your body.

NEXT STEPS

If you'd like to find out of The BYB Method is a good fit for you please reply to this email or send me a Whats App message to 07801 967361, You can also DM me directly on Messenger.

I'm starting a new 6 week intensive, small group course where you'll learn how to recognise patterns of tension in your body, and simple exercises to release them, reduce pain and move freely. Please click on the link below or reply to this email if you'd like to learn more.

• Book into a Stretch, Yoga or Pilates class with me - these are a good introduction to The BYB Method
• Register your interest in a new 6 week small group intensive course starting on Sunday 24th September: "The BYB Method: A roadmap to reducing pain and moving with ease" HERE.
• Attend a half-day mind-body retreat - these are deeply relaxing, fun, social small group experiences typically held in various locations within easy reach of Worthing, West Sussex. The next one is on Sunday 3rd December,
• Subscribe HERE to receive "The Movement Chronicle", a weekly e-newsletter delivering mobility and pain reduction tips directly into your inbox every Monday morning,

To find out more about my classes and retreats, or to join my email list you can contact me via any of these channels:

• Email at norma.pearson1@ntlworld.com
• DM me on Facebook Messenger 
• WhatsApp message to 07801 867361.