…or that the pain has gone away.
You’ve probably experienced this: You tweaked something—maybe your back, your knee, or your neck. You toughed it out. If you were cautious, you might have dialed back your activity and rested. After 3 or 4 days, it still hurt, but you managed it with ibuprofen or a topical analgesic. It might have continued hurting past a week and into week 2, but eventually, it “didn’t hurt anymore.” You assumed it was fine now. You returned to activity as before, and although you could tell you weren’t quite 100%, it “didn’t hurt.”
That is, until you tweaked it again and injured yourself, or you came in for a massage and experienced what I like to call a “painful discovery” when the area in pain was touched.
What tends to happen, especially with our large muscles (think quads, lower back, and upper back muscles), is that when the injury is new, our brain really registers the pain. But after days and weeks, it becomes like a calendar or reminder app notification on your phone that gets deprioritized because you’ve ignored it so many times.
Similarly, the brain stops making you so aware of the pain until you return to an activity that triggers it or touch the area. The pain was never gone. It wasn’t fixed. It didn’t go away by itself.
Ignoring it can lead to compensating with other muscles, which can cause more pain and muscular dysfunction. It can also hinder any mobility or fitness goals and prevent you from living your life the way you want and doing the things you enjoy.
If you have new or lingering pain, act on it now.
Book your massage www.living-massage.com/services
See you soon
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