Chronic Pain

[Michael McMahon]

“Hip strain itself might also prevent two-leggers from taking up galloping as a workout; treadmill gallopers reported that the gait was challenging and uncomfortable for hips and thighs, and several stopped galloping before the 4 minutes were up.”

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2013/01/video-why-humans-dont-gallop
 

We have a poor stride width compared to a galloping animal. They often have a large width relative to their height and their legs go straight vertically down. We can increase our stride breadth but the legs would then be out at an awkward angle. A tightening of the hip flexor muscles would subtly alter stride width and might be a hidden reason for the decreased speed in injuries like shin splints.

“Stride width is formally defined as the distance between your heels when each heel is at its lowest point during the stride (i.e. when your foot is on the ground). In practice, you can think of it as the lateral separation between your left and right footprints on the ground when you run...

Again, a wider stride was associated with less stress on the tibia, whereas a narrower stride created more stress on the tibia.”

https://runnersconnect.net/stride-width-injuries/

 

“One possible cause for shin pain is weakness of the hip muscles, specifically the gluteus medius. This muscle is located in the lateral him and abducts and rotates the hip joint. When the gluteus medius muscle becomes weak, it results in a collapsing kinetic chain. This collapsing kinetic chain allows your thigh to rotate and pull inwards abnormally.”

https://www.agnesian.com/blog/shin-pain-may-mean-hip-weakness

[Michael McMahon]

“You can calculate your maximum heart rate by subtracting your age from 220. For example, if you're 45 years old, subtract 45 from 220 to get a maximum heart rate of 175. This is the average maximum number of times your heart should beat per minute during exercise.

Once you know your maximum heart rate, you can calculate your desired target heart rate zone — the level at which your heart is being exercised and conditioned but not overworked.”

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/exercise-intensity/art-20046887
 

Maximum heart rate depends on intense exercise which is intrinsically initiated by the subjective mind. How hard you run alters the rate your heart beats. So aspects of heart rate are related to conscious psychological factors. Might chronic pain be able to affect the breathing muscles to reduce the degree to which you can exert yourself? This would therefore lower your maximum heart rate. Although this feature of the heart can only be indirectly gauged and it’s invisible to some extent.

 

“Experiencing shortness of breath (dyspnea) or other breathing difficulties can feel scary. But it’s not an uncommon symptom of anxiety.

Many people worry that a symptom affecting their breathing must come from a physical issue. In fact, your mental health affects your physical health in a number of ways.”

https://www.healthline.com/health/shortness-of-breath-anxiety

[Michael McMahon]

“(Proverb) A chain is only as strong as its weakest link: An organization is only as strong or powerful as its weakest person.”

 

If something further down the kinetic chain is injured or weakened, then any muscle upwards from that location won’t be as efficient as it could be. A lot of our coordinated movements are dependent on a myriad of joints and muscle synergists. For instance it might be physically possible to play through an injury during a sports match. But if you use your upper leg muscles to run faster with an impaired ankle, you’d run the risk of more severely injuring that ankle. So maybe some types of chronic pain could be there in order to prevent overexerting an injured body part.

 

https://www.google.ie/amp/s/www.sbnation.com/platform/amp/soccer/2014/11/12/7188643/why-do-athletes-play-through-injury

 

 

“Shin splints are one of the most common running injuries. They are the result of tired or inflexible calf muscles putting too much stress on tendons, which become strained and torn.”

https://www.runnersworld.com/uk/health/injury/a760234/shinsplints-how-to-beat-them/

It’s informative how an injury to the comparatively small calf and anterior tibialis anterior lower leg muscles can have such a large effect on the whole leg’s overall stride length and running footspeed.

One way of visualising the spinal engine would be to walk at a slower pace with a smaller stride length. It’s almost possible to walk without an active foreswing. You could actively push back on the backswing leg and use the hips and arm swing to redirect and rotate that momentum to passively move the opposite leg forward.

 

[Michael McMahon]

“To become a sprinter or a long distance runner, different muscle groups need to be trained in the body and there is a clear distinction between their physical appearances. A sprinter’s body is built for speed and power while the marathoner is built for long and slow endurance.”

https://finishermag.com/running/can-a-sprinter-run-a-marathon/

 

Both sprinters and marathon athletes are great at running. Both have the requisite psychological endurance. But even if a marathon runner had the mental resilience to run a short intense record-breaking sprint, they still wouldn’t be able to do that because the two disciplines require contradictory physical attributes. The human body can’t efficiently adapt to the opposing demands. Maybe by actively reducing and weakening the contradictory muscular attribute, the body could passively and effortlessly improve a separate physical feature.

[swansont]

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Moderator Note

The connection of recent posts to chronic pain is...?

 

[Michael McMahon]

17 minutes ago, swansont said:

The connection of recent posts to chronic pain is...?

“The lumbar spine, or low back, is a remarkably well-engineered structure of interconnecting bones, joints, nerves, ligaments, and muscles all working together to provide support, strength, and flexibility. However, this complex structure also leaves the low back susceptible to injury and pain...

The low back supports the weight of the upper body and provides mobility for everyday motions such as bending and twisting...

Chronic back pain. Usually defined as lower back pain that lasts over 3 months, this type of pain is usually severe, does not respond to initial treatments, and requires a thorough medical workup to determine the exact source of the pain.”
https://www.spine-health.com/conditions/lower-back-pain/lower-back-pain-symptoms-diagnosis-and-treatment

A lot of our body weight is held upright by unconscious muscles in the back and hip region. We don’t feel how much energy they exert compared to our legs. So when we walk and run, we aren’t fully aware of the extra power that’s supplied by these concealed muscles to keep us erect. So when these muscles get weaker with age, people will have to exert themselves relatively harder to compensate for their increased effective upper body weight. Athletics may seem to be different than the weakness of ageing but ultimately all physical pain has as its source the basic need to move the body and maintain all of its systems against the various stresses and demands.

[swansont]

!

Moderator Note

Recent posts. Sprinter vs marathon runner and max heart rate, specifically, but playing through an injury isn’t strongly connected, either.

Please stay on topic. 

 

[Michael McMahon]

3 minutes ago, swansont said:

marathon runner and max heart rate

I think muscle strength is inherently related to maximum heart rate. For example, if someone injured or weakened their legs then they won’t ever be able to exert themselves to the same extent. But if they can’t exert themselves as much, then their maximum heart rate has been effectively reduced because they won’t be able to run as hard in the future. So this relationship is of an indirect nature.

 

The runner vs sprinter comment is an analogy for how the body might be inadvertently weak in one area but strong in another. The difference is that running is voluntary pain that stops as soon as the race is over while chronic pain is involuntary and more prolonged.

“To best sustain endurance activity, two systems must be effectively coordinated: ventilation and locomotion. Evidence has long suggested that these two mammalian rhythms are linked, yet determinants and implications of locomotor–respiratory coupling (LRC) continue to be investigated.”

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40362-014-0020-4

 

It’s quite a long article but it demonstrates a connection between breathing patterns and walking speed.

[Michael McMahon]

“Isometric exercise is a type of low-impact exercise that involves straining your muscles without moving or bending your joints. A prime example is holding your body in a plank position – you stay at the top of a push up without bending your elbows. 

Isometric exercises are good for maintaining your strength and stability. For instance, if you train by doing a plank pose, it can help you hold a plank position for an extended period of time, but won't necessarily help you do more pushups. Isometric exercise is often recommended for people who arerecovering from an injury, or who suffer from joint pain like arthritis. Evidence is growing that isometric exercise may help lower blood pressure as well.”

https://www.google.ie/amp/s/www.insider.com/what-is-the-difference-between-isometric-isotonic-and-isokinetic-exercises%3famp

 

Exercise is healthy for us even though the exertion can get strenuous or tiring. So it’s counterintuitive that something good for us in the long-term can be painful in the short-term. But the self-sustaining biological body would innately know this concept as it’s designed from evolution to protect us. So I think it’s logically possible for the body to involuntarily self-induce pain of this kind in order to recover from or prevent an injury and to better withstand the ageing process. The body itself could consciously simulate the intense pain of exercise without the external stimuli.

“Some bodyweight exercises have been shown to benefit not just the young, but the elderly as well. Older people undertaking bodyweight exercises benefit through increased muscle mass, increased mobility, increased bone density, decreased depression and improved sleep habits.”

- Wikipedia 

[iNow]

Is this supposed to be a blog? There no discussion here

[swansont]

!

Moderator Note

I asked that you stay on topic, and you’ve been posting other material. As iNow suggests, it looks like you’re blogging. Please do that somewhere other than the forums

This suggests you’re done discussing the topic of the thread.