Movement.

We humans are good at moving. The diversity of our movement ability is astonishing. Give yourself some credit for that.

However, some people have a fear of movement. It may sound crazy, but it’s not as out there as it sounds. “Kinesiophobia” is something a lot of you have probably experienced at some point. I’m not talking about a genuine fear of moving an inch (although that could be the case), but rather, to give you an example, a fear of bending over to pick up a pen in case you hurt your back.

Now, your personality may have a lot to answer for, as we know that individuals who tend to catastrophise about their pain are at greater risk of that pain becoming chronic (long term). However, healthcare professionals also have a lot to answer for. If you are told about the dangers of bending your back (nonsense) or how a certain posture is going to lead to x problem (again, probably nonsense), then you are bound to have some fear about getting into that position. You may immediately worry about bending your back, thinking it’s going to be painful, thinking that it may cause injury. 

This feeling of vulnerability is very, very unhelpful, as a recent systematic review* pointed out. The goal of this 2018 systematic review was basically to figure out more about the link between kinesiophobia and pain, disability and quality of life in people with chronic musculoskeletal pain.

The main findings were:

• A greater degree of kinesiophobia at baseline predicts the progression of disability over time.
• A greater degree of kinesiophobia is associated with greater pain and disability.
• A greater degree of kinesiophobia is associated with lower quality of life.

They are some pretty profound findings, especially if you are someone who doesn’t have a great understanding of how pain works. We might talk more about pain, if you are interested (just let us know). 

But for now, what I really want you to take away from this is that if you are a personal trainer, you need to be very careful of the language you use. You don’t want to be the person that instils fear in your clients, so make sure you are empowering them to move, as opposed to restricting them from moving. 

Likewise, if you are someone who gets a little pain every now and then, recognise that you probably don’t need to worry about each and every movement in your life being “perfect”. Obviously, your pain is unique to you, just as your injury may be if you are injured, but in general, you don’t drastically need to change your posture or the way you do light tasks like picking up a pen.

Remember, this isn’t personal advice, it’s just something for you to think about…..

*a systematic review is basically a type of research study where the researchers try to summarise the findings of lots of different studies all in one paper.

Kind Regards,

Gary McGowan

Triage Method