This weeks edition may be a little more technical than previous weeks’ reading, but it will be well worth your trouble to wade though it to better understand our brains behaviour.

The goal this week is for you to learn about your pain buffers, how they work, and then how specifically you can modify them, if they are not working to your liking.

Just as the pain system learned to be overprotective, it can be retrained to work normally thanks to bioplasticity. Follow along as we demonstrate how a graded approach to taming your pain will reliably take you out of your chronic pain situation. This technique is highly effective but it does not happen quickly. It will require patience, persistence, courage and coaching. The tried and tested route to recovery is centred around threat identification and graded exposure. This is your opportunity to change paths from the downward spiral of pain and suffering to a slow and steady road to recovery.

The Twin Peaks Pain threshold model

These mountain figures are a useful way of understanding the relationship between your pain, the nervous system changes that occur with persistent pain, and the brain retraining activities of graded exposure and pacing. Let’s walk through the left side of the top figure.

TT (initial) The old tissue tolerance line. Before your pain started, your tissues were fit and healthy. There was a certain amount of activity that you could do before your tissues would fail in some way. Most tissues are damaged by reaching the tissue tolerance line too quickly (e.g. falling, lifting a heavy weight, a car accident). Sometimes, this line is reached slowly while you are distracted (e.g. working or training).

PBP (initial) Protect by pain line. Danger sensors are activated before damage occurs and your brain is alerted. Usually, the pain ignition nodes are activated, the neurotag for pain is produced and it hurts. Pain motivates you to stop or change the activity to get your tissues out of danger. A great system. You could go further or climb higher, but it gets dangerous.

NTT (new) The new tissue tolerance line. Look at the mountain on the top right. If you have had pain for some time, the line shifts. Your tissues are not like they were – especially if they have sustained an injury. Although the tissues might have healed, they may not perform quite the same way. More importantly, you have not used the tissues as much or in the same way since your pain started. They are unfit, weaker, more easily fatigued. This is one reason you shouldn’t just push through pain, dose up on analgesics or climb a steep mountain for example.

NPBP (new) New protect by pain line. Your alarm system and pain ignition nodes are sensitized. You have pain at very low levels of activity – perhaps all the time. Your brain is really looking out for you. Take notice of the size of the protective buffer between the onset of pain and the new tissue tolerance line. If you progress slowly, it will be impossible to re-injure the tissues because it will hurt too much to even get close to this line.

FUL The flare-up line

BL The baseline from which to begin activity

Retrain your pain system
Pacing and graded exposure
Just as the pain system learned to be overprotective, it can be retrained to work normally thanks to bioplasticity.

Bioplasticity is the ability of our body tissues and all our body systems to adapt to experience or to learn.
And now plan your ‘training’. Let’s walk through the first of the small mountains in the figure below.

A. Starting below the flair-up line (FUL), gradually increase steps in advance: ‘always do more than you did yesterday, but not much more’.

B. The flair-up line (FUL) will slowly lift along with your training level. This is because you are training your brain, reducing the perceived threat, accessing the virtual body in a non-threatening way.

C. The protect by pain line (PBP) will slowly lift – the sensitivity of the system reduces.

D. The tissue tolerance line (TT) will also lift – this is one of the beautiful properties of highly adaptable beings – the tissues get stronger, fitter and better controlled.

Evidence also tells us that if we wait for things to happen and spend all our time reacting to things, then we’ll gradually experience increasing disability and pain. So being proactive is best.

Proactive can also mean ‘we are for active things’ – actively rethinking pain, actively trying new approaches and retraining the pain system and body. Broadly speaking, this means doing things ourselves rather than having things done to us.

Active strategies include things that are empowering and enabling, developing your confidence, belief and knowledge so you can take charge. When you do this, you enable your recovery.

Start your journey to structural well being with a comprehensive 90 minute Adaptive Bodywork Session or make it a project with a 3, 6 or 12-series.

Together we’ll explore what’s holding you back.

Together, we’ll set you on a path to a more balanced and integrated life.

Removing Pain from the Human body by Adaptively Reconfiguring the Connective Tissue Support System…

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For more information visit us at: www.adaptivebodywork.com

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Start your journey to structural well being with a comprehensive 90 minute Adaptive Bodywork Session or make it a project with a 3, 6 or 12-series.

Together we’ll explore what’s holding you back.

Together, we’ll set you on a path to a more balanced and integrated life.

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