Chronic Pain in Fitness Professionals
This article takes a look at the epidemic of chronic pain and how fitness professionals manage—or mismanage—it in their own lives. Fitness veterans who have dealt with this problem, either personally or in a clinical setting, share advice on how to take care of the body so that it works optimally for years to come.
Surgery is just one of the many solutions to chronic pain, defined by the National Institutes of Health as persistent pain lasting for more than 12 weeks (NIH 2011). In addition to surgery as a treatment option, the NIH recommends medication, acupuncture, electrical stimulation, nerve blocks, psychotherapy, relaxation therapies, biofeedback, behavior modification, and complementary or alternative medicine (CAM) approaches such as tai chi, meditation, massage therapies and similar self-managed treatment methods. What it does not recommend is ignoring the pain or “working through it.”
An Objective Eye
It can be difficult to take a step back and be objective when it comes to your own health. Katy Bowman, MS, director of the Restorative Exercise Institute in Ventura, California, and author
of Move Your DNA: Restore Your Health Through Natural Movement (Propriometrics Press 2014), suggests you write down
the following:
over your lifetime
you take and why
tion you take, and how often
or need to have
chiropractor or any other
allied health professional
regularly or on a semiregular
basis
to the best of their ability
having in the future
Alternative Treatment Options for Chronic Pain
Medication and surgery are not the only options when dealing with chronic pain. The following treatments are viable methods for addressing aches and pains:
- acupuncture
- chiropractic manipulation
- supplements and vitamins
- cognitive therapy
- yoga
- relaxation therapy
- hypnosis
- guided imagery
- music therapy
- biofeedback
- massage
To read more about chronic pain in fitness professionals, please see “Playing Hurt” in the online IDEA Library or in the April 2015 print issue of IDEA Fitness Journal. If you cannot access the full article and would like to, please contact the IDEA Inspired Service Team at (800) 999-4332, ext. 7.