4 ways to manage a pain flare-up

We know that pain flare ups can be frustrating and at times even scary. You’ve worked so hard in physical therapy; you have been seeing great results then seemingly out of nowhere – BAM! A pain flare up. Hopefully your physical therapist explained to you that this could be a possibility, but if they did not, we’re here to tell you that this is normal.

In the process of rebuilding back from an injury, pain flare-ups can and most often do occur. This is your body’s way of telling you that you’ve exceeding what it can do right now, and the best thing to do is listen. 

We want to give you 4 tips to manage pain flareups while still focusing on training. 

1: Reflect on the last day or so. 

Over the last 24-48 hours of activity did you do any of the following: increase volume such as a longer run, lift much heavier than normal (20%+ increase), try a new movement, do a combination of the above? Spikes in volume or trying new activities can sometimes lead to an acute irritation in tissues. This could even be something you are used to doing but in a different environment such as walking barefoot on the beach when you are used to wearing shoes

2: Perform a Body Scan. 

Check in on your body, how has you sleep, nutrition, stress and recovery been? Have you been sleeping less, partying more, or working longer hours? We call this body scan a “biofeedback score”. When your body is working harder in other departments, this can lower your ability to handle outside stress like exercise or activities.

3: Keep Moving in a pain-free way. 

Find a way to keep moving/modifying aggravating movements. Some suggestions to this are: introducing a deload, adjust range of motion, reduce weight, work on other weaknesses. Even something simple such as walking or stretching can help reduce symptoms.

Re-test. 

Once you have gone through steps 1-3 and your symptoms begin to calm down, you can start to re-test. An acute flareup can last up to 3 weeks, use steps 1-3 then slowly reintroduce previously painful movements by lowering weight or volume by 20-50%.

Once you have been ablet to go through all 4 steps, you can attempt to repeat previously painful movements. Reflect again on how this feels 24-48 hours later. Rinse and repeat until you are back to your normal training volume.

Most people will reintroduce weight too soon or too quickly, leaving them in a constant pain-loop. If you are unsuccessful at managing this on your own working with a fitness-forward physical therapist can take out all the guess work in training around pain.

You can schedule a free consult with us to see how we can help!