Using movement to fix chronic musculoskeletal pain

The default setting of a human (or any other organism for that matter) is health. That’s the premise I start from. Ill health or disease is a signal that you’ve moved away from your default state. Listen to that signal and take action (not drugs). Getting back to that default state is what the body wants. And that is what it will do, if you remove the roadblocks.

The usual roadblocks that I talk about are diet and sleep, because they are easy to describe in text form. Movement can’t be described in text. It can be demonstrated on video, but it needs to be experienced to be really understood. Monkey see, monkey do.
However, there’s another layer of complexity/complication that gets added on. What I demonstrate might not be what you ultimately perform. In your mind it might look like you’re mirroring the movement perfectly. However usually there’s something missing or something extra.

The missing and extra stuff come from your past physical literacy, your regular habits, your posture, your mental state on the day you’re doing these exercises, or even what you’ve eaten the day before. Your fears about the movement. Your own perception of what your body is capable of. This layer, is something I can’t fix to satisfaction, on my own. It needs work on your part. Honestly speaking, it is not something I should be fixing on my own. Your body and all the complexities described above are unique to you. I can only show you the basic default patterns that I’m familiar with. You’ll have to adapt that pattern for yourself. It might not be vastly different from the basic pattern, that’s where I (we) win. In order to be able to make the adaptations to the basic movement pattern, you need to be able to try it. To want to try it. To practice it for countless hours, till you become an expert at the version that *your* body needs.

The other major roadblock in your path to healing is the dysfunctional movement pattern that had been used to manage your pain, asymmetry, fears, anxieties and lack of mobility/strength/ stability. That’s what I really wanted to talk about in this post, but the intro leading up to it, became a full sized post all on it’s own.

The dysfunctional patterns that have helped you cope so far, are also what is keeping your pain chronic.

That needs to be reset.

That is what movement should do. It should reset your nervous and musculoskeletal system back to default on a daily basis, to keep you healthy in spite of the stresses and strains of your daily life.
It should reset your patterns and get you as close to default as possible. The closer to default you get, the faster you will progress. You will trigger a vicious cycle of healing.

How can you use movement to reset your patterns?

3 basic principles

1. Diaphragmatic breathing
2. Cross pattern, quadruped movements,Movement that crosses the midline
3. Triggering propriceptive inputs

Each of these basic points need further elaboration. 1 book each maybe.
Will try and post later in detail, as and when inspiration strikes.

In the meantime, use Google to find out more about the jargon I’ve posted here. Ask questions after doing your homework. Maybe you’ll keep me interested enough, to keep posting.

The three points listed above, I stole from this video link posted below. I’ve been using these for years on my patients but I hadn’t been able to boil it down to basics and put it into coherent words like this guy has.

Thanks to the person who triggered my search yesterday evening and made me find this channel on YouTube.

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