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1.
Recognize Early Warning
Signals. The nervous system is an early warning
system with specialized receptors sending signals back
to the brain giving information that a part of the body is not functionally
normally-such as with discomfort, stiffness, burning, or pain.
The brain makes decisions and sends commands back to the
part of the body that needs to perform an action in response to the stimulus.
Burning or discomfort in a part of the body can be an
indication that trauma or tiny micro-trauma is occurring with small shredding of the tendons-called overuse or tendonitis or
sprain/strain. Unfortunately accidents can happen but
when an early signal shows something is not as it should be the care required to fix
the problem is much less significant. Ignoring warning signals and continuing to use
the body part can increase injury causing more shredding
of the tendons/muscles requiring substantial care. Pay attention to your body and
learn to take action with early signs of trouble. An oil change
in the car is much less costly than replacing the
engine.
2. Keep energy tokens in
the bank. Every muscle in the body has a specific
amount of energy it can provide. Muscles that have been built
up gradually without injury will have more energy tokens, be stronger and last longer. Muscles that are not kept in good condition will waste away
(disuse atrophy) and therefore have fewer energy tokens. If
the nerve that sends signals to muscles do not functioning normally the muscle
will also atrophy and will have fewer energy tokens to use.
Loss of normal nerve function can be from birth, degenerative nerve conditions such as Multiple Sclerosis (MS) or
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig’s
Disease, or trauma to the nerve itself such as a spinal cord injury. By spending only
those energy tokens available in your energy bank you
can prevent injury from overuse. When you spend more energy tokens than you have in the bank you go into debt causing overuse
which can feel like discomfort, burning, or pain. Continuing to overspend energy tokens can eventually
rupture the muscle away from the bone. Not paying
attention to the warning signals is a behavioral problem. When you make the activity
outside of your body more important than your own health this
is a leading cause of overuse injury and ignoring these
signals can cause you to eventually traumatize all the muscles in your body.
3. Improve energy report
card. Each morning tells how well you did the day
before. If you wake with discomfort this indicates you
overspent your energy tokens and went into debt. Waking without any signs of
discomfort or difficulty moving shows you kept some energy
tokens in the bank which you can spend today. Like
compounding interest financially-energy tokens in the bank will grow by letting the muscles
rest after using them which makes the muscle bulk grow.
A good rule of thumb to prevent overuse is to increase energy output by no more than 25% every other day. If you cleaned the
bathroom sink yesterday and another sink the day before
try cleaning the tub today. Waking tomorrow will tell you if you were ready to
clean the tub. The problem comes when you keep cleaning all the
rooms of the house because they “need” cleaning even
though your body indicates it does not have enough energy tokens to spend. Your body
is begging you to make healing more important than house
cleaning, cooking, shopping, playing video games, or
cutting trees. Listen closely to your body to heal with early warning signs by resting well
enough long enough. Then build muscles gradually or you
will more likely eventually develop enough overuse injury that will make it too difficult to care for yourself and you may need to spend
time in a nursing home.
© Loraine Lovejoy-Evans, MPT,
DPT
Carlsborg/Sequim, WA
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