Pain vs Hurt

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How much pain is too much?

Pain can be a good indicator of tolerance for an activity, specifically in cases of acute injury. However, too much respect for pain intensity and response can be an inhibitor of progress and lead to more challenges down the road. At Rehab 2 Perform we like to utilize a “Traffic Light” system to describe painful symptoms and be a guide for tolerance of an activity. 

• Green Light – Green means GO! This can be used to describe activities that do not provoke symptoms. Continue your activity as tolerated. 
• Yellow Light – Proceed with caution. Yellow light symptoms are those that do cause some discomfort that is manageable in nature. We encourage you to continue activities that cause yellow light symptoms. This can assist in increasing your pain threshold, allowing you to better tolerate and complete more of a given activity in future sessions.
• Red Light – These are symptoms that are sharp or shooting in nature, causing a change facial expression, limp, or otherwise significantly altering the way you do a task. We encourage you to hold off on these activities and have a discussion with our staff to determine comparable tasks you may better tolerate in the meantime.

 

What activities should I avoid?

At Rehab 2 Perform, we generally recommend that you continue with your normal daily routine as best you can tolerate throughout the course of your back pain. In the early stages of you may not be able to fully tolerate your prior physical activities (gym program, running, etc.), however there are other options for staying active. 

• Studies have shown that a walking program is a safe and effective method to reduce chronic low back pain. Read more about this HERE.