How many of you work out regularly? Are the workouts for enjoyment, to avoid stiffness and pain, or to build your body so it is stronger and functions and looks better? One of the questions I ask patients who work out incessantly is their motivation for their exercise. I often find out that if they don’t exercise regularly, they experience stiffness and aches. While some also go for their health or the social aspect of going to the gym, the reason ultimately is pain and stiffness avoidance. Why exercise to reduce pain and stiffness? A patient said to me last week, motion is lotion; However, excessively working out may do more harm than good years later. Intense exercise will cause an anesthetic effect in the body with a post-exercise euphoria due to the body’s pain-reducing mechanisms, sometimes referred to as endorphins, which can make us feel better for hours after the workout. The next day, however, we may realize we are feeling stiff and sore again, and then work out to get that euphoric feeling again and again. Some of you who are reading this article may realize this sounds like what they do for themselves. Eventually, we may have an injury that results from the same mechanisms that we did not understand that caused our chronic stiffness and pain for months or years prior. Others begin to realize their workouts are more pain than pleasure and can no longer tolerate the exercise due to shoulder, hip, or other types of pain. My Sunday morning emergency calls, which I do my best to relieve, often are a result of people having done this for months or years. Patients in acute pain who have chronic conditions are often inflamed and may require weeks or months of care to fully resolve their problems. You cannot out-exercise pain. Why you should see a chiropractor first to diagnose and treat your injury and stiffness issues. Stiffness and pain, and the eventual injuries that can occur, are a result of mechanical problems you may not understand. Incessant gym-going and exercising are a pain avoidance behavior that, over time, can damage joints, fascia, and muscles. The truth is that this does not work. Mechanical problems require mechanical solutions, and they do not just work themselves out with exercise. I have often recommended that patients read my book, Cheating Mother Nature: What You Need to Know to Beat Chronic Pain, which is available on Amazon.com for download or soft cover book. The book explains why we hurt and offers people an understanding of chronic pain they may not learn about elsewhere. My 40 years of experience show that most injuries are movement-related. Understanding the problem that made you stiff and achy is the only way to diagnose it properly. Chiropractic sports physicians look at the body holistically, meaning we do a full evaluation of you, not just the painful part. The reason you hurt is usually different than where your pain is located. For example, your chronic shoulder problem may be a lower back issue, or your elbow and wrist pain may come from another part of the body restricting how your arm works. Chiropractic sports physicians understand and evaluate the whole person to understand the pain. Looking on Google for answers is often a frustrating journey of conditions, specialists, and advertisements. It is rarely helpful in diagnosing what may be a problem regarding your unique body mechanics. Simple tests, such as getting out of a chair barefoot or standing on one leg or performing a squat during active evaluation, can help us understand a shoulder, back, or knee problem better than an MRI can after the injury. We may take an X-ray to determine joint health; however, most people do not require them to commence care, as our examination often helps us to properly understand the cause of your problem from the first visit. When we order an MRI, it is because the patient has a problem that may require a modification of care or a medical specialist. The good news is, most patients improve, feel, and function better after our care and do not require advanced diagnostics. Chiropractic treatment usually commences the same day, and patients can and do feel relieved with the first visit. Follow-up visits will help us help you. Typical treatments in our office may include manipulation of the extremities or spine, myofascial release treatment to improve how you move, and exercises to reeducate the body to move and function better. Foot orthotics may be recommended to level the hips and improve how your body functions while walking and arising from a chair. Once a patient reaches maximum improvement, they are discharged from care. Patients are also given tools to help themselves, and they learn how to take care of themselves and their families’ needs differently than before. Many of the traits causing chronic problems are inherited ideas, such as the importance of shoe sizing can prevent pain in the knees, back, and feet months and years later. Perhaps this is why patients often refer to their family members as well. Chiropractic care is simple, thorough, safe, and effective. If you are always stiff and sore, we can help. Why wait for the injury that is likely to occur, causing you to stop exercising altogether? Book online today.