Hey Guys!

This is Dr. David Middaugh from El Paso Manual Physical Therapy.

Let’s talk about the risk of exercise today.

Many people we talk to in passing, or sometimes actual clients of ours, have told us that they’re afraid to do certain exercises because it might make their condition worse.

Whatever your condition might be (back pain, shoulder pain, neck pain, or knee pain)….they’ll actually go do the exercise (runners or weightlifters or they just like to get a simple workout at the gym) and it aggravates their problem.

Now the problem we see as physical therapists is that there is a strength problem or movement problem that has not been addressed.

They don’t know how to move right and they haven’t fixed the problem yet.

They’re afraid to exercise as a result and what we want for all our clients is to be exercising.

Now we’ll tell our clients and friends that there is inherent risk in exercising.

“Yes” you might get hurt….

…but as long as you have all the tools you need to prevent your pain from getting worse, or mitigate it, so that you’re not over-training or you’re not training incorrectly as far as form and technique then you should go exercise.

There’s risk when you go gambling – you might lose some money or you might win some money.

There’s also risk in driving – you might drive to work today and get hit by a bus.

You might just get in a fender bender which is not life threatening but you have to deal with the consequences of repairing your car now.

There is a risk in everything.

But consider this…

What if you don’t exercise?

What if you never get to the point where you say “I’m going to get on a regular exercise routine”.

The problems that result from long-term inactivity, not working out, losing strength and having generally low fitness levels, are ENORMUS.

Not exercising can contribute to diabetes, obesity, blood pressure & cholesterol problems…

But in addition to that (while the years and decades go by) if your strength is low, you may be setting up the stage for arthritis inside your joints, disc problems, nerve problems….

That is a much bigger problem than irritating your knee a little bit when doing squats today

or feeling a little tightness in your back when deadlifting

or bothering the shoulder problem whenever you’re doing arm exercises.

So I encourage you to pursue exercise.

…and if you’re running into any problems talk to an expert.  

Make sure that you know without a doubt what the problem is so you can get it fixed and can go into exercise full speed, meet your health goals, manage your weight and get nice and strong and maintain that strength and fitness as the years go on.

We want you to feel like you’re 20-30 years old into your 60s-70s.  

It really is a possibility as long as you’re keeping up your health.

Your health is invaluable.

So please take our advice and if you’re dealing with an issue right now.

If you’re thinking about exercising but you’re afraid of flaring something up, please start talking to us, give us a call, shoot us an email we’d be happy to meet you wherever you’re at.

If you’re currently exercising already and running into some nagging pain, make sure you fix that problem sooner rather than later so you’re not dealing with a torn tendon or ligament, cartilage, meniscus or something like that later down the road you should be able to exercise without hurting yourself.

Thanks for reading. Have a great day ?