Chronic Pain – How Aerobic Exercise Helps
If you’ve been following my series on chronic pain, you know that pain lasting more than 3 months can be considered chronic. You also know that knowledge about pain helps reduce pain even if you are having pain with exercise. Today we’ll talk about how aerobic exercise reduces chronic pain and how to return to aerobic exercise if you’ve been avoiding it due to pain.
Aerobic exercise reduces pain because it causes you to focus on activity.
In physical therapy, we usually focus on reducing activity to allow tissues to heal. Then as tissues heal we gradually help patients progress back to activity safely. But when treating patients with chronic pain we take a different approach. Our goal is to gradually increase activity without increasing pain.
Adriaan Louw describes chronic pain as moving from lots of room for activity in your life to little room for activity because of your pain. Meaning you used to be able to do all the walking, running, and strength training you wanted, but now all of those activities cause pain.
In order to get back to each of those activities, you must gradually increase your activity without upsetting the “inflamed” pain system. (See previous post.) With gradual increases in activity you are able to not only increase the activity you can do without pain but you are able to focus on activity rather than your pain. Since pain is processed in the brain, focusing on activity instead of pain can be very helpful in managing chronic pain.
Aerobic exercise reduces pain because it causes a hormonal release.
When you exercise you release endorphins. Cleveland Clinic describes endorphins as hormones created in your body that relieve pain. Not only do endorphins relieve pain but they also boost your mood which can be helpful in reducing anxiety and depression.
Because aerobic exercise has this pain and stress relieving effect, it is essential to incorporate into your life if you deal with chronic pain.
No matter how intense your pain is, aerobic exercise is a great way to relieve overall body soreness and help you mange feelings of stress, anxiety, and depression because of the hormonal release that happens when you perform aerobic exercise.
General guidelines for aerobic exercise.
The American Heart association recommends 150 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic exercise per week. A brisk walk is considered moderate intensity exercise. But swimming and biking also increase your heartrate and give you the benefits of aerobic exercise.
If you are struggling with chronic pain that has significantly reduced your activity level or if you haven’t done aerobic exercise in a long time, this amount of exercise may seem overwhelming. So I encourage you to start small.
Remember that with chronic pain, your goal is to increase your activity level without increasing your pain. If you are able to walk walk or run for 10 minutes before pain increases, start your exercise at 9 minutes and gradually build your time from there. If you push too hard, you are likely to increase your pain to the extent that you won’t want to try to walk or run again.
How to enjoy aerobic exercise.
As we’ve discussed, aerobic exercise can reduce pain and feelings of stress, anxiety, and depression. The America Heart Association also shares that aerobic exercise lowers your risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and assists with weight management.
Start small to relieve pain and build a habit
But how do you make aerobic exercise a part of your life without dreading your workout, causing pain, and feeling like you’ll never catch your breath? Start small.
The most important thing you can do to incorporate aerobic exercise into your life and get all the benefits of it is to make it a habit. And habits are formed by starting small.
If your goal is to get the recommended 150 minutes of exercise in each week, your goal would be to do 30 minutes of aerobic exercise 5 days per week. I would start with 5. Yes, 5 minutes. Why? Because 5 minutes is easy to fit into your day. If you start with 30 minutes, you’ll likely burn out quickly because taking 30 minutes away from something else in your schedule is hard.
Find something you enjoy
In addition to starting small, I would pick a form of exercise you enjoy. Hate running? Walking is great too. Don’t have a bike? Try swimming. No one said you had to pick the most painful and grueling form of exercise. Choose something you enjoy. And find a friend. You’ll enjoy exercising much more while doing it with a friend and adding a workout buddy forces you to schedule your workout.
Schedule your aerobic exercise
And scheduling your workout is important. When in your day will you add this to your routine? Especially as you make your aerobic exercise time longer, you’ll need to choose when in your day you will fit it in.
Aerobic exercise is very beneficial in managing chronic pain and it is extremely beneficial to your overall health. But start small, choose a mode of exercise you enjoy, find a friend, and schedule your workout to make this form of exercise enjoyable.
If chronic pain is effecting your sleep, or a lack of sleep is keeping you from exercising, you’ll love my next post!
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Disclaimer: You should always consult your doctor before making changes to your health strategy especially if you have a chronic condition. If any of these strategies sound especially helpful for you, be sure to discuss with your doctor the best way to implement them into your health plan.
Reference:
Adriaan Louw, PT, PhD. Why Do I Hurt? (Adriaan Louw, 2013), pg 5, 39-41.