Aches and pains becoming a way of life? It doesn’t have to be.

Have you recently recovered from an injury and just feel like something is “off?”

Are you currently battling an ankle, knee or hip injury and feeling like your back is starting to get sore? Are you a runner, biker or any activity that requires repetitive motions / movements and having problems fully recovering from a simple injury due to aches and pains elsewhere, or are you currently suffering from any kind of tightness, soreness, discomfort or pain and just cannot seem to get back to your normal activities due to pain, or worse, fear of the pain returning?

If not now, does any of this sound familiar, no matter how recent or in the distant past?

If you, or someone you know can relate to what you just read, you are not alone! It is so common to not fully get back to your once active, mobile self, that I often take a lot of time with clients, or take time to write about it, to make sure people understand what is happening and how to overcome these issues. I will simply explain what is happening to you, and what happens to so many people who wind up throw their hands up, want to give up, and think they will never get back to their previous activities.

You see, our bodies respond to aches, pains, tightness, soreness and discomfort in a similar way. It is called “compensation,” though not the type of compensation you would desire, it is your body’s way of “paying you” for the injury you caused or allowed to happen, or even if you suffered an accident. Our bodies are experts at trying to avoid pain, discomfort and tightness, that other parts of our body try to overcome the injured region, and either tighten up, pull away from or simply, “compensate” for the injured area. This leaves an imbalance throughout your body, when comparing right side to left sides.

Think of the way your car has a massive pull to one side when you suffer a tire blow out, while driving, the other three tires pick up the slack and you notice a huge strain through the steering wheel, causing you to have to compensate for the missing tire. If you can imagine the strain through the car frame, you can understand what happens in your body when it compensates for a problem. This is similar, though often times not as drastic, to what your body does to compensate for aches, pains and soreness. Other parts of your body get overused, tighter, bear more weight or simply strain to try to help overcome the area of the body in need, and does anything it needs to avoid the pain.

If these areas that have compensated for your symptoms are not addressed, it is possible that they may not return to their “normal” condition and thus cause you to feel “out of balance,” a little “off,” or not quite 100 percent. If this is you, make sure when you seek help, your trainer, health care provider or physician looks at more than just the injured or compromised area to make sure you will be able to fully return to all activities in a balanced and safe way.

This story was originally published March 14, 2017 at 5:04 PM with the headline "Aches and pains becoming a way of life? It doesn’t have to be.."