by Ginny Rieger
“No pain, no gain” is a common phrase that is used to say that it is necessary to suffer in order to succeed or make progress. I cannot tell you the number of times I have heard this “No pain, no gain!” idiom from my patients as they come in dreading the inevitable pain of addressing their already painful problem. Often, they AVOID coming to therapy to address their painful issue because they have had a rough experience for a condition or have a preconceived notion that therapy has to be painful to be helpful. I am going out on a limb here and stating that THERAPY DOES NOT HAVE TO BE PAINFUL!
Now, that is not to say there will not be moments of discomfort—there likely will be! However, at Advance Therapy, we do our best to alleviate pain whenever possible, not cause it! There are all kinds of techniques, gentle exercises and modifications to be made in order to achieve gains without making you cry!
Pain is the body’s way of telling you something is not right, and a good therapist will respect that. Brian has written a couple of great pain blogs that explains this more fully. However, bottom line is—more pain is NOT an indicator of progress.
The single most important indicator of progress, in my opinion, is consistency. We should say “no consistency, no gain!” Patients that are consistent in coming to therapy, in doing their home exercise program, and who consistently work toward resolving the issue have the best outcomes. Shocking, I know!!
To reiterate—therapy does not have to be painful to be effective! Come see us today and let us show you how good therapy can be!