Enjoy that pain-free passion

If pain is hindering your hobbies, here’s what to do

Most people have hobbies or activities that they enjoy participating in regularly. Having a hobby has been shown to reduce stress. However, additional mental stress can happen when pain is preventing you from participating fully in your hobby.

There are ways to minimize or prevent pain that will allow you to participate in your hobbies.

Warm up

With physical hobbies, it is important to participate in an appropriate warm-up before completing. Performing gentle warm-up activities increases blood flow in the body and will help loosen your muscles to prevent additional strain during your activity. A typical warm-up should only take 5-10 minutes, but can help keep you from getting injured.

Take it slow

Pain can also occur when someone tries to jump back into a hobby after taking some time off. An example of this would be a golfer who takes the winter season off, but as soon as the weather turns nice they start to play as much as they did at the end of the previous season.

The strength gained during last summer’s season will not carry over into the next year unless you did some sort of workout plan.

People get into trouble when they load their muscles, tendon, and joints more than the body is prepared for. Doing this repetitively, each time you perform your hobby, leads to breakdown of tissue and eventually injury.

Improper body mechanics

A third reason pain may be present during your activity is your body mechanics. The body needs to be positioned properly to complete activities without placing additional stress on body structures. When you perform an activity repetitively with improper mechanics, it may not feel pain right away. However, when you repeatedly do things with improper mechanics over the course of your activity, the body can begin to break down and cause pain.

How physical therapy can help

Physical therapy can help address all three of these components of pain during your hobbies. Physical therapists would start with an assessment, watching you perform your activity (your body mechanics). We would then be able to assess any impairments of strength, joint range of motion, or balance that could lead to pain if performed repetitively.

Between these components, we can design a specific list of exercises/ stretches for you to perform to allow your body to perform the hobbies you love without breaking down your body and leading to injury. We would also be able to provide a warm-up routine that would help prevent pain during hobbies.

If pain is hindering you from participating fully in your hobbies, talk to your doctor about a referral to physical therapy.

Brian Doll (PT, DPT) is a physical therapist in Jackson at the ORS Foot, Ankle & Running Center. You can contact him at 877- 202-2175 or ORSMI.COM