Too much, too soon... followed by too little

Frances Brown • February 12, 2022

It's the new year. You want to make a change to your fitness NOW. So you've started going to the gym every day.  But... 3 weeks in... and... something doesn't feel right. So you rest for a week and it feels ok, but as soon as you get back into it, it's back.


Sound familiar?

A "load management error" is one of the most common things I see in practice! 


This is usually something along the lines of doing too much of something, too quickly, after a period of doing too little in the period before it. This can be problematic because the soft tissues are not conditioned to be able to handle that amount of loading, at that time.


If pain begins at this point, it can result in a period of total and prolonged rest (unfortunately often this is what is suggested by health professionals), which reduces the tissue tolerance even MORE.. making it impossible to get back to the desired task, even at a lesser intensity.  


You may also have been advised that this problem is a result of a certain technique flaw, and if you just change your technique, your pain will go. 


Sometimes changing this may address the issue. But in the case of rehab that just isn’t getting anywhere, it may not be the right focus, as changing technique only moderately alters how much you load certain tissues. If a tissue is irritated this may not be enough. 


Bear in mind too we often move differently once in pain (think: limping), so “correcting” faulty movement patterns in someone in pain may not always make sense! 


So if you have “corrected” technique but the pain keeps coming back, consider, have you also managed how much load is going through an angry tissue? 


If you keep getting pain when you hit a certain point, or every time you come back from resting, this may be the issue.

Do a bit less, allow the tissues to recover, then gradually do a bit more.

It doesn’t mean you are copping out by doing less of the thing that hurts. You can do modified versions of it and you can also use the time to adjust those movement patterns you wanted to. 


Try finding what you can handle (establishing baseline), do just a bit less than this, and do that more than once a week, instead of perpetuating the too much / too little cycle. 


If your physio / doctor tells you that you need to just rest, do less, that you are ‘over-doing’ it, with no plan to find your way out of this.. time to find another one! 


Get in touch with me now to discuss this if this has happened to you - see the ‘physiotherapy services’ tab, where you can book a free 15 minute phone consultation, send me an email, or book an assessment.

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