When you’re in pain, you just want to feel better right? Not only is it uncomfortable but it impacts your functionality.

You can’t do the things you want to do. So when you go see someone like an osteopath for help, your hope is that they can put their hands on you and relieve your pain.

What a lot of people don’t expect, is that the at home management is just as important as the hands on treatment.

For this reason it’s likely you will be given exercises and stretches to help your recovery.

What are you doing daily?

Most people spend up to and above 8 hours a day at work.

No matter what your job entails, there are certain activities, postures and prolonged periods of time doing the same thing every day.

Maybe you have to sit or stand at the same work station, or drive for long periods.

You could have repetitive movements or simply be on your feet for 8 hours. Accumulate this amount of time over the course of a week, then a month, then however many years.

It’s then easy to see that half an hour with an osteopath may not completely fix your condition for good.

The very next day you go back to 8 hours of the same thing that likely contributed to your condition.

Pain free doesn’t mean risk free

Pain is a warning system designed to keep you safe.

Therefore you can have high pain levels with low tissue damage and you can be pain free but still in the process of healing.

Now that’s not to say that lowering pain levels aren’t a good indication that you are in fact healing, because it absolutely is.

But pain is not our only indicator of healing. We also need to assess mobility, flexibility, strength, weaknesses and tension.

We need to address all these facets in order to efficiently heal an injury.

We also want to reduce the risk of further injury.

1 in 5 people who sprain their ankle will do so again within the next 12 months.

So really just being pain free is not our ultimate goal.

Our ultimate goal is to be stronger, more mobile and more flexible than we were before the injury.

This gives us the best chance at preventing re-injury.

Do you have a recurring niggle?

You might have a chronic condition, or maybe you have a little niggle that every so often becomes a terrible pain.

Maintenance treatments for recurring conditions are helpful to prevent acute flare ups.

In between these, you need to know how to manage your condition at home for the long run.

Ask your osteo as many questions as possible. Ask them to educate you on what’s really going on in your body.

What anatomy is affected, what’s causing the pain?

They can teach you what you can do at home and changes you can make at work.

There will be some exercises and stretches that become part of your daily norm.

Then there will be specific instructions for managing the pain when it becomes aggravated.

So, why would you continue doing your prescribed exercises even after your feeling better?

• Whatever you’re doing at work is going to contribute to your aches and pains. 8 hours a day of anything will require more than one half an hour of treatment to counteract.

• Being out of pain is not the only goal. Having good mobility, flexibility and strength are vitally important for preventing re-injury.

• If you have a condition that flares up from time to time, it needs long term management. Being well versed in your own condition will help you to manage when you can’t get to your osteopath.