Chronic Pain & Exorcise

cyberpunkme

Do you have chronic pain or a permanent injury you have to get around to exorcise? How do you do it? What do you do? Tell me your pain secrets.

BUheidis

I have chronic joint pain and have most problems with shoulders and wrists. I've found that anytime anything starts to flare that I take it easy and ice or heat or sleep (or all of that). On good days, I like to do elliptical or stationary bike and found that keeping active (even if it's only a 5-10 minute walk) keeps my joints happiest. Sorry, that's kind of vague but it's really a matter of knowing what your limits are and working with the amount of spoons you have that day.

albertabeefy

For me it was mostly about learning to 'tune-in' to my body, and be aware of my pain levels so I can intervene before pain runs amok. Once you have that part down, it's about finding exercises that don't increase it too much.

Most of my pain is lumbosacral area, so when it's bad but I NEED to exercise, I tend to get on a spin bike, and lower the handlebar a little more than usual. This way my body-weight is also supported over my shoulders/arms instead of ONLY my back, and allows me to cycle more-intensely and longer than I would otherwise.

When I don't have any inflammation/pain, I can do almost anything. If it's just a little, I tailor it. I'll do an elliptical instead of a treadmill... I may do some machine weights instead of free weights, etc.

canadianlbs

i have rheumatoid arthritis that i pretend to ignore, but it's not something that just goes away so it's probably more active than i'm prepared to admit. so there's almost always something.

i look at two things, i guess: what type of pain, and what's the pattern of behaviour for that pain. something that doesn't get worse in a progression i monitor and try to use as a sanity check and a guideline for form correction. something that does get worse and has been doing it for a while is a hard stop. i set certain limits on how bad something's allowed to get before i call on that one, because it has to be early enough that i won't spend six months trying to recover from it. it can't be too early because if i never did anything that 'hurt' i'd never do anything.

if it feels like tissue irritation i look for stretches and soft tissue release stuff that might help, and keep going while trying to avoid the behaviour that triggered it. if it feels like impingement i stop faster than other times, because impingement can become a real injury to a muscle or connective tissue. if it's a deep joint type thing, i'm not sure . . . probably go back to the meds i'm supposed to take all the time for a while.

i'm kind of stoical about always having something that hurts, but a wimp about long-term or permanent harm. so it's a constant balancing act and a lot of mental diagnosing and troubleshooting.

cyberpunkme

Thank you all so much.

cyberpunkme

itsbasschick

i have bursitis in both hips, have had two torn rotator cuffs, and one still has one torn muscle, have knee problems, tendonitis in my elbows, and that's for starters

yes, i have to work around these things, and honestly no PT or trainer has been able to figure this stuff out as well as i do. it doesn't hurt to have a book that shows which muscles are used for each exercise, but the bottom line for me is i try every freeweight, cable or machine exercise with little or no weight and do it slowly, really feeling if it's affecting the painful or injured areas. if it's not a problem, i do eight slow no or low weight moves. then i wait a couple days. if there's no problem, i add a little weight - no more than 5 pounds - and repeat. and so on.

anything that hurts, i don't listen to any advice about it as previously the pros gave me advice that caused worse problems not once but repeatedly. if it causes pain with no/low weight, it's not for me to be doing right now. i can re-assess after a few months.

btw, strengthening the muscles in my hips and glutes has helped the pain in my hips quite a bit. strengthening biceps and tris and shoulders helps me work around some of my other problem areas. i'm laying off chest till february, but can't wait to get back to it.

canadianlbs

itsbasschick wrote: »

honestly no PT or trainer has been able to figure this stuff out as well as i do.

this, although i have definitely had help from a zillion online sources along the way for any figuring out that i've done. and a physio that i have some respect for, now and then if i can't figure something out on my own.

it doesn't hurt to have a book that shows which muscles are used for each exercise

and also this. it might be highly dependent on how your mind works and what kind of learning is most natural to you, but for me actually knowing the mechanics going on in my body has been really really helpful for troubleshooting.

i like the little animated clips on youtube from muscle and motion a lot. they show you those mechanics in explicit detail so i find it easier to visualize them in myself. and the little round guy who brings the stepladder to fix the skeleton's form . . . well, i'm odd. i enjoy that part of them too.

Willbenchforcupcakes

I have chronic nerve impingement from c2-t7/8. If I don't train on a very regular basis, the nerves start really acting up and cause the muscles to go into extreme spasms. So I do the very best thing that I've found. Forcing the muscles to work properly keeps the nerves firing correctly which in turn keeps the muscles loose. 5 days is about as long as I can go without training and not having to deal with a flare up.

happyauntie2015

I have multiple chronic pain issues that flare up from time to time. I'm starting to listen more to my body and ease into things instead of jumping in. My knees and ankles and wrists seem to give me the worst problem so I makes sure I modify exercises when it comes to those exercises. I use text straps for push ups and squats and I star away from the treadmill and was mostly using the recumbent bike until a couple weeks ago when I added the elliptical. If I'm hurting to bad I ice and rest and skip a workout then get back to it

hypnoquin81

Thanks for posting the question and wonderful responses. I'm recovering from an auto accident and a concussion with multiple chronic pain issues (shoulder,knee, neck, & lumbar). I was feeling hopeless and gained so much weight from fear of pain.

Thank-you for sharing your experiences.

Chieflrg

I have RA, biggest mistake I did was listen to my dr and stop lifting.

I started lifting heavy and my body loves it. I know the majority of people thst I've raked to had same experience. Tune into your bod and learn when the days you should tame down.

sijomial

My major areas of chronic injury are my knee (lost a cruciate ligament and 90% of a meniscus) and my lumbar spine (lost 85/75/65% of disc height in three lumbar discs due to multiple herniation).

Played 10 years of competitive squash despite the knee injury by spending a small fortune on a specialist knee brace. I can't run far or often but I can cycle - so I cycle a lot, century rides etc.
Have to be sensible with how much stress I put on my knee (lunges are out, leg press restricted as knee goes bone-on-bone over 200kg for example).
I'm now six years past predicted date for a total knee replacement so must be doing something right.

I have to limit vertical compression of my spine or I suffer nerve impingement and loss of function but over years of training progressively I've gone from "pink dumbbell" levels to reasonable levels of weight bearing, not as strong as I'd like but OK. Finding a truly talented Osteopath was a great help in managing the condition.

As regards pain apparently I have an unusually high threshold but I think of it as pain acceptance, as long as I know I'm not actually damaging myself I can acknowledge pain and contain it. It's a fairly common mind-set amongst motorcycle racers (a.k.a. having a screw loose!), a bit of detachment regarding the body as a tool rather than self.
I done a few little bits of self treatment to avoid longs waits at doctor or hospital surgeries - removal of sutures, cutting off an annoying mole with a craft knife etc..

schwest76

I've been battling lower back pain since June and have been seeing a PT since September (she diagnosed it as sciatica). When the pain was really, really bad the only thing I did was count it as exercise if I walked more than a total of 3 miles throughout the day. Since then it's gotten better but I still have flare ups. When it hurts but is doable then I'll do a bike, if I don't have any pain then I'll do my treadmill incline workouts. As much as I really, really want to get back into running (which is what prompted this whole mess) my PT said no for now. I LOVE lifting heavy but she also told me to do lift weights with more repetitions (this is the one I really struggle with). I'm still learning to listen to my body and it's hard. There are times I've been stubborn and worked out when I probably shouldn't have and ended up being miserable for the following day or two. I really hate that I can't exercise as intensely as I want but, considering I couldn't even workout at all this summer, I am very, very thankful that I can do some sort of exercise.

canadianlbs

i have rheumatoid arthritis that is pretty dormant, but it is there. lots of small things and general unreliability from various joints. i never really have a predictable body thing going on.

i'm with @Chieflrg in that i lift. i started cycling after diagnosis in 2002 because a) i was so angry about being sick and b) my feet hurt so a bike just made sense. but the lifting's been new in the last 2.5 years.

so the good is that i do it and i love it. the bad is what i already said. my body isn't reliable. i don't really have a single answer to how i deal with it, except maybe to say that i always lift, i just modify or work around whatever's an issue right now. even if it's a week where i can't do *kitten*, i'll still go in there and try various things just to see what i've got that isn't an issue that week. if i really can't do *kitten* because it's some major joint that i'm afraid of doing permanent damage to, then i do whatever i can do instead. such as mobility work or some bodyweight experiment or even just learning how to activate some muscle group. it's kind of like when you're stuck waiting for a derailed train, you might as well do some chores while you wait.

so i guess my two guidelines are to do it anyway, and to do it your way.

alyangel123

My pain reduced when I started working the muscles helping to support my pelvis and shoulders which do the job my spine and pelvis should be doing. I remember years ago a doctor saying it was a good job my muscles were so strong as I'd be feeling way more pain. But not to run or walk or anything that would aggravate joints. So I stopped everything out of pain and fear my running and yoga were making it worse. Big mistake because my body fell apart. I started walking, then running, the running made it worse. I switched to weights and yoga, and now I can run too, minimal pain since. The more muscle I build the less strain on my bones. Not sure of the why, but it worked for me.