Alternatives to Pain
Susan Underwood BS PT
Tracy Caulkins Physiotherapy Center

No one can truly understand what another person feels. We are a total of all of our experiences, including emotional trauma, nutritional imbalance, and physical injuries. Past trauma or surgery for example can result in tightened connective tissue. The tissue heals but the tightened fascia can lead to a mechanical disadvantage at the involved areas. The mechanics involved depends on the balance of that soft tissue-the length and strength of muscles on one side of the joint counterbalancing the other side. When a muscle has been injured, the body finds the easiest way to move so the weak muscles often get weaker and the strong muscles get stronger. The imbalances are amplified. A faulty patter develops, as the neuromuscular firing is out of sync. What can we do about It?

1. Learn to relax tight muscles. This might mean just being more aware of letting go of the tension or using an educational tool like biofeedback. Techniques such as myofascial release and craniosacral therapy are gentle hands on treatment modalities that can enhance self correcting abilities, as well as provide symptomatic relief. Gentle aerobic exercise like walking or hydrotherapy can literally warm and oxygenate the tissues. Breathing with your diaphragm can help keep the "emergency brake" off.

2. Strengthen weak muscles. The body is 3 concentric tubes. The outside tube is muscle and soft tissue. The bones literally stay where the muscles keep them. The core of the bodies 3 concentric Strengthening exercises that keep the body more symmetrical or more erect can help tubes is the spinal cord. With a better balance of the muscles, the body has a mechanical advantage and that means a bigger adaptive capacity, an increased "margin for error". minimize the strain on the whole system. There are two kinds of muscles. The tonic muscles attach to the bone and help maintain the stability of the joint. The phasic muscles primarily move us around. It is often the tonic muscles that do less than "their fair share" so that the phasic muscles may be overused. If more is asked than a muscle is capable of giving, the body finds another stronger muscle that will do the job. A negative self-perpetuating cycle like this can lead to pain and tension. A positive cycle of relaxing tight muscles, strengthening weak ones leads to optimal posturing and less pain

3. Make healthy life style choices—spirituality, creative self expression, quality sleep, self-acceptance. The gift a person gives himself or herself of expecting to find insights and answers can be the most important step in discovering alternatives to living in pain.