The majority of people we treat tend not to be sure of what has caused their pain with a lot of the injuries we treat not being due to an obvious cause or single event, such as a fall or awkward lift.
The cause of most problems tend to be more subtle and insidious. These are often due to a gradual accumulation of tension and / or weakness over time. You may not be aware of the “build up” of tension because the body is good at adapting to minimise strain, but you feel the resulting injury when the body can no longer cope.
A simple tip that can help with this is to simply be more aware of your body and how it feels throughout the day.
* How are you sitting – are you slumping, are your feet under you at the desk, is your head forward in front of your shoulders?
* When was the last time you got up and walked around?
* How are you standing – are you standing tall, slumping or putting more weight on one leg than the other?
* Are your shoulders relaxed or are they up under your ears?
* How are you breathing – quick / short breaths, or slow / deeper breaths, not from your chest but using your diaphragm?
* Do any muscles feel tight? Could you do with stretching?
* Do you need to have a drink of water?
It is very easy to get caught up in what you are doing and lose touch with how you are feeling. We often ignore the early physical warning signs of tiredness, aches or stiffness. Just because you are not in pain now does not mean that you may not be predisposing yourself to an injury in the future. Checking in with your body every now and again helps – prevention is always better than cure.
