When does structural damage actually matter

To be honest, I think we have to live somewhere in the middle.

Pain doesn't always indicate that damage has been done to a particular structure, but it also doesn't mean it hasn't.

For example, how often do you stub your toe when your life is going well? So was the actual cause for the stubbing because you're in a rush, running late, or having a hard day?

If you sprain your ankle during a box jump, is it because you were afraid of the height of the box jump or because there's something wrong with your ankle or neither? Was it just an accident? And what happens after, when your ankle starts to recover. How do you feel about box jumps then?

I use that example because it happened to me. And it took me another 18 months before I felt confident able to do box jumps, including a couple more falls. The chances of me re-injuring my ankle on the box jump was pretty low, but my fear was high.

So was my ankle the problem, or my mind? The story I like to tell myself is I was afraid.

But was my ankle still needing some strengthening work, or did I need to improve my technique? Maybe all of the above is actually true before I could return to box jumping.

We spend a lot of time analyzing the structures of the human body.

There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with trying to improve the way you do something, particularly when it comes to exercise, or even things like posture in setting. But the question then becomes what is the true motivation. Why are we trying to change things?

Is it to reduce pain or is it to improve performance? Is it because we don't look like someone else, or the way we perceive we should look when we're doing that activity? So it's not always the structure, but it can be.

Just so you know physiotherapists can help with this!

NIcola Robertson

Registered Physiotherapist