Physiotherapy is an essential component of chronic pain management. Physiotherapy approach in chronic pain is different compared to that after an injury (acute pain). Longstanding pain results in altered biomechanics and changes in the way nerves transmit the pain sensations to the brain. Altered biomechanics leads to more stress on some body parts at the expense of protecting the painful areas. Over a period of time this can lead to the relative weakening of certain muscles and one needs to be re-educated on the basics such as correct posture, gait and, weight bearing.
We understand that getting started can be difficult. Your physiotherapist will help tailor the exercises to your current functional status.
An experienced physiotherapist can help you by:
- Setting realistic goals
- Dividing exercises into smaller achievable steps giving you a sense of achievement and enabling achievement of bigger goals which may seem impossible initially
- Giving you advice on posture and activity levels
- Educating you about your pain condition and the do’s and don’ts
- Explaining the concept of pacing of activities, activity cycle and helping you implement these. In simple words, this means avoiding over activity at one time and undertaking a predetermined amount of minimal physical activity every day irrespective of pain severity. The amount of physical activity is then increased gradually and maintained to let the body get accustomed to the new activity levels. Hence the focus is on gradual increase and maintaining the positive trend. Doing too much at one time can lead to increase pain and inactivity over the next few days. This is unhelpful as it promotes deconditioning of muscles and reinforced the negative thoughts such as increasing activity means more pain
- Aim to make you independent and self-reliant so that in the long run you can continue with the exercises on your own
- Keep you motivated and guide you through the difficult time, helping you progress towards your goals.
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