How to Use Resistance Exercise to Treat Chronic Pain
Finding the right pain treatment for yourself can seem confusing and overwhelming but there is good news! One of the most effective treatments has been in existence for ages: exercise.
Of course, exercise has many benefits like increasing bone density, heart health, lean muscle mass, and flexibility. Exercise can also be used to reduce pain and prevent flare-ups. There’s not just one right way to exercise though. Walking, dancing, biking, lifting weights and swimming are just a few possibilities. Although all movement is beneficial, resistance training is especially useful in managing pain for multiple reasons.
Resistance training gets your brain out of lockdown. Understanding the link between your brain and body can help you understand how to reduce pain. The brain is in control of all your muscles. Your brain is always looking out for you, making sure you don't hurt yourself. Muscle weakness can make the brain alarmed because weak muscles may have more difficulty protecting you in dangerous situations. To compensate, the brain may tighten weak muscles, sometimes even to the point of spasm. The tight muscle(s) will restrict your range of motion, preventing you from performing a movement that may hurt you. Pain may also be generated to warn you. Your brain will feel much better about loosening up if the muscle(s) regains strength. Most people over-utilize cardiovascular training but under-utilize resistance training. Through resistance training, the brain can reconnect to weak muscles and remove the lockdown.
Resistance training increases muscular support of joints. When your brain senses weakness in your muscles, it may also choose to compress and stiffen your joints to help stabilize your entire musculoskeletal system. Commonly over-compressed joints are hips, knees, ankles and spine vertebra. Resistance training can take excess load off of these joints by increasing the brain’s usage of the muscles around the joints. Unfortunately, many people with chronic pain try too much too soon and are discouraged when they flare up. For example, those with hip or knee pain may try to perform squat exercises right away. But if the quadriceps muscle group, glute muscles, or other related muscle groups are weak, then squatting may cause more problems. In an attempt to execute the squat, the brain may compress the knees or hips instead. Other, more muscle specific resistance exercises may better strengthen weak muscles initially. Then, after improvements have been made, more complex exercises like the squat may be used.
How can you implement resistance exercise techniques?
The initial goal is to increase neural drive to the muscles. Neural drive is your brain’s ability to connect to, sense, and use a muscle group. Sometimes neural drive is called the mind-muscle connection. Your brain constantly molds your body based on your habits, overall health, stress and other factors. Increasing neural drive to your muscles is completely possible, even if you are deconditioned or have some weak muscle groups. Remember, increased neural drive makes the brain feel better because the muscles start to function normally again. After neural drive is established, muscles can then be strengthened. Here are two steps to improve strength and reduce pain.
Us simple, single joint exercises or isometric exercises to reestablish neural drive.
This pulldown exercise targets the back, shoulder and arm muscles without using the legs.
If you wanted to learn to juggle, you certainly would not try to juggle five balls at one time. It’s too much too soon! Similarly, the brain can only learn so much at once. To simplify, choose basic exercises that isolate certain muscle groups. Squatting involves movement of the ankle, knee and hip joints. That’s a lot. However, resistance training exercises that only train knee flexion can more potently activate the hamstrings if the hamstrings are weak. Isometric exercises, that is, exercises that do not involve movement, can also be very effective at activating weak muscle groups. Once again, bicep curls are much better at isolating the biceps then pull-ups which involve many other muscles. Keep it simple. In the beginning, these exercises should not feel extremely strenuous. You should be able to perform them with excellent technique without compensating in other parts of the body. You may feel pain during these exercises, but it should be minimal and should decrease after the exercises have been completed.
2. Increase resistance or exercise complexity to build strength.
Once neural drive has been established, the muscles are ready to be strengthened more fully. You can accomplish this by increasing the amount of repetitions or resistance of the exercises you are already doing. Eventually you will want to choose more complex exercises that require many different muscle groups at the same time. Why? Because the demands of real life require that we use our body in a coordinated way. Exercises that combine the movement of many joints will better strengthen and prepare you. At some point, you’re going to have to pick up groceries, get in and out of a car, bend over to pick something up, or climb stairs. Strengthening your body as a unit will make you more resilient to injury and may help reduce overall pain.
What should you expect?
What should you expect when you begin this process? To be honest, it may not feel very good at first. You may even have elevated levels of pain initially. However, this doesn’t mean that you are doing damage. It means that your brain feels guarded. In the beginning, exercise can make the brain feel threatened because it’s new, a form of stress on the body, and it’s more challenging than what you’re used to. Don’t lose hope! This common phenomenon won’t last forever. You’ll very likely feel less pain as you progress and as your brain starts to turn the alarm bells down.
Humans need other humans for encouragement and help. Supportive friends, family or colleagues can really help you stick to this even when it gets tough. But if you feel like you don’t have the support you need or if you need more guidance on how to exercise with pain, seek out a qualified professional. It could be a physical therapist that specializes in chronic pain, a trainer who knows how to work with injuries or a similar professional in the field. At SPARC we offer holistic and personalized assistance for people like you. If you have been injured at work and receive medical care through the worker’s comp system, our functional restoration might be just the thing for you. If you are not in the workers comp system but still have chronic pain we also offer personalized one-on-one coaching. No matter who you are, rest assured, there is light at the end of the tunnel!
*This is not intended as specific medical advice. Always consult your doctor or qualified health professional before embarking on any new exercise program.