“Your decisions determine your life more than your conditions. Decide today that you’re going to live in a beautiful state no matter what”
Tony Robbins
One problem with the current medical approach, and in many pain clinics, is too often there is a ‘one size fits all treatment approach’. While this may have some benefits to the larger group, it often overlooks the individual.
Should you exercise when you’re in pain?
Recently I thought of this when a patient asked, “Is Yoga good or bad for you?” I answered; it can be good or bad for the same person, just on a different day. What I was getting at is our bodies (and lives) are dynamic, meaning that they’re in a constant state of change. So, what worked yesterday may or may not work as well today or tomorrow.
The old adage, ‘power through it’, ‘walk it off’ was great during little league, but now that you’re older and you’ve had an injury, degenerative changes or just pain, DON’T try to just power through it. If you’re doing something and you begin to feel some pain ease up, give things time to settle and modify your approach. You may find in a day or two you’ll be back on track.
Listen to your body when you’re in pain.
So stay flexible and most of all listen to your body when you’re in pain. So, if what you’re doing, even if it’s exercise or yoga, doesn’t feel right, stop, change or modify how or what you are doing. As I tell young athletes after an injury, better to lose a day than a week, or a week rather than your whole competition season.
Experience teaches us if you ignore a small signal or pain that your body is sending you, it will surely send you a louder message meaning more pain later.
So as Tony Robbins once wrote, “Be rigid in your determination, but flexible in your approach.”
Find more about our treatment approach here.