One of the most common complaints that we hear from new patients in our clinic is that they have been doing exercises to fix their pain, but they didn’t work. A vast number of us use exercises to try and resolve their pain. Some people self-prescribe, while others have the exercises prescribed by a healthcare professional, and many have succeeded. Yet, many of the most vulnerable and sore people still find that it simply does not reduce the pain no matter how many ‘exercises’ they do. Worse still, many people find that the exercises only serve to exacerbate their chronic pain.

We know from mountains of research that rehabilitation exercises are a hugely important part of the solution to chronic pain. Yet, a very significant number of people have no success if they use exercises alone. These facts may highlight why exercises often don’t work for the worst pains when used in isolation.

Whilst exercises are a proven and vitally important component of good rehabilitation; they are not the whole story. Excellent pain management must also include tools and approaches that resolve the pain itself and stretching and mobilising the area. Furthermore, many of the worst cases of back pain, frozen shoulder, neck pain, hip pain etc., have a significant stress-related component. So trying to use exercises that strengthen the tissue whilst ignoring the pain itself and the possibility of issues in the brain’s pain pathway is inevitably going to be quite a hit and miss affair, especially for those with the most pain.