Understanding the Difference: Acute Pain vs. Chronic Pain
We are a group of health professionals including Physios, Massage Therapists and Personal Trainers wanting to answer your common questions on pain and dispel any myths surrounding pain and exercise.
In our fourth blog we want to help you dissociate between acute pain and chronic pain.
Understanding the distinction between acute and chronic pain is essential for effective pain management. Acute pain is a sharp, sudden sensation that typically signals an injury or illness. It’s your body’s way of alerting you to a problem that needs immediate attention. Acute pain usually subsides once the underlying issue is treated, such as a sprained ankle or a surgical procedure.
Chronic pain, on the other hand, persists for weeks, months, or even years. It often continues even after the injury or illness has healed. Conditions like arthritis, fibromyalgia, and lower back pain can result in chronic pain, significantly impacting daily life and overall well-being.
With chronic pain comes a fear and lack of confidence with movement and exercise. Our brains build up walls due to a memory of how we came to be in pain. For example, lower back pain sufferers become fearful of picking something up as that is how they suffered the back pain in the first instance. In actual fact, this is one of the most common ways to injure your back. However, it shouldn't mean that nobody should ever pick something up. It means it is common and means we need to gradually bring you back into a flexed position through optimal loading (see blog post). By increasing the load in this position you will increase your resilience to pain, dampen pain receptors and provide you with the confidence to complete activities you've feared for years.
If you suffer with chronic back pain, we'd like you to complete a little test:
Simply bend down to touch your toes!
Now tell us whether you held your breath??
Holding your breath is a common sign of guarding and is a response that has been created by your body to protect you from the pain.
Now we'd like you to complete the test again but breathe....
Let us guess, it felt better and you were able to go further.
You can thank us later.
This is an important step for chronic pain sufferers as we need to become aware of the patterns you have build as a protective measure to pain. Once we take down these walls, we are in a better position to progress your rehabilitation.
At Back2Front, we emphasize the importance of differentiating between these two types of pain to tailor your treatment plan effectively. Understanding whether your pain is acute or chronic helps in deciding the appropriate level of activity and the best therapeutic approaches.
If you are experiencing pain and discomfort, it is best to be assessed by a health professional who can guide you on what activity is safe for you to complete to aid your recovery.
You can book online with us by using the following link:
Curious about managing pain through activity?
Check out our thoughts on staying active when in pain and learn about optimal loading.
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