Are you looking for that magic bullet which will get rid of your pain in an instant? Right, now I said I was a good physio, not GOD. Before you get the wrong idea of what I’m trying to say, hear me out ok? We are all human and looking for a quick fix. Why? because our lives are so busy! And we don’t really have weeks to wait for this pain to go away a 100% right? So what do you do? You go in to just get enough physio or massage to take the edge off the pain. And you get back on the horse..so to speak. But, (and this is a big BUT) until you fall off the horse so badly that it takes you months to get back on. So is it worth ignoring the long term full recovery for short term gain? I think not, here’s why:

Do you take just 1 pain killer and expect the pain to disappear?

No, right? When you go to a doctor, they give you a course of treatment. Like 5 or 10 days isn’t it? So why do you think 1 session of physio is enough to get rid of your pain a 100%? Unfortunately that’s unrealistic. Your body has specific systems with which it heals. And this can take anywhere between a few weeks to months based on the severity of your pain. It’s really important to respect that and allow enough time for your body to recover. Your physio is the best person to tell you how long it’ll take for your injury to heal.

It took you days or even weeks of being in pain to finally seek help

neck pain

If you’re anything like me, you’ve put off going to the physio over and over again. That’s ok. It’s human nature to not take action until something becomes so painful that you can’t deal with it anymore. But can you appreciate what happens in the meantime? Well, your body is great at compensating. So if one part is in pain, it’s going to recruit an adjoning part to come to the rescue. Have you noticed that you started with neck pain but now you’re getting upper back too? And I can bet you’ve had low back pain at some point along the journey. Am I right? Or am I right? All this is ok as long as you understand that pain is not normal. It’s your body’s cry out for help. Because your body is so good at bearing it all, it can take and take until it gives up. So if you’ve been in pain for long, it’ll take your body long to heal as well.

You can’t exercise pain away

The first step in the healing process is to reduce the swelling and inflammation. Because this is exactly why you get pain after an injury. And Physio helps you to achieve that. But it is slow process. You can’t do a magical exercise to get rid of the pain instantly. A few times, people come in wanting to get exercises so they can manage their pain. And they seem surprised then, that we’ve given them a course of treatment for the best recovery. I must make one thing clear here, as much as I like chatting with you, I really wouldn’t want to keep seeing you for ages. So if I’m recommending a plan of action, it’s to get the best results for you.