Physiotherapy and Pain: The simple truth
One of the most prevalent worries people have about getting physiotherapy is that it will hurt. While we won’t guarantee that you won’t feel some pain, our goal is to prevent it and we don’t want you to feel it. When we urge you to stress a painful and/or swollen joint or tissue, pain is most frequently the result. If we don’t move the injury or apply pressure to it, it will become immobile or have more severe long-term issues.
The following are some typical causes of pain during physiotherapy:
- Scar tissue has developed – Around the wounded area, scar tissue develops when an injury heals. like plastering over a hole in a wall. Your body slaps the plaster down in whichever manner it can because it needs to do this swiftly. In order to minimize the limits that this scar tissue may impose on muscles and joints, physiotherapy can ensure that it lays down properly. If ignored, it can clog joints and cause long-term problems.
- The possibility exists that the bones will deteriorate or soften – Your body’s weight causes your bones to undergo stress, which makes them strong as they are. The bones will deteriorate if this tension is removed for a sufficient amount of time. Those bones will recover but lose their strength if you break your leg and use a wheelchair for a few months. To ensure that it recovers as strongly as the original, you must start stressing it once enough healing has taken place.
- Soft tissues tighten up around the joint – Soft tissues will start to stiffen up if they are not moved through their typical range of motion, reducing the joint’s range of motion. Are you familiar with the saying, “If you don’t use it, you lose it”? That works here just great. For instance, your biceps muscle on the front of your arm will tighten up if you keep your elbow bent for a long enough period of time because your body will believe that you no longer require it to be long enough to straighten your arm. And the majority of the body’s soft tissues fall under this.
- Muscles are swollen or constricted – An immediate surge of inflammation occurs when a muscle is torn. While inflammation does deliver nutrients and molecules to the site of injury that aid in healing, excessive or persistent inflammation can have adverse effects. Inflammation, whether it be for good or bad, can hurt, especially when a joint or muscle is moved or pressure is put on it. Additionally, muscles that are overly tight from trying to protect a joint might become uncomfortable over time. Pain in the neck and lower back frequently accompanies this. In an effort to reduce joint movement, the muscles in the neck or back will tense in response to pain. It might be difficult to try to relax them. However, patients frequently say that this pain “hurts so nice” or that it “feels good.”
Despite the fact that these are possible causes of pain during physiotherapy, it is usually only slight pain or discomfort. Our advice is to first discuss what to anticipate with your physiotherapist. There won’t be any disappointments this way. Often, our first priority is to relieve pain, but in some cases, we may need to inflict a little discomfort in order to ensure that our body heals as quickly and effectively as possible.
