The pain relieving expert is asked: When I do exercises, I stretch, it happens that after the stretch I have even worse pain than at the beginning. Am I doing something wrong?
“How long does the pain last after the stretch?”
About 30 seconds to a minute. After that it’s back to normal.
“When I get feedback from clients on this topic, this pain is often a reason why exercises are not done at all or not completely. If you do something you haven’t done for years, it’s like driving your car off the motorway, straight onto the dirt road next to the motorway. The little bumpy road next to it. 
New movement patterns need time to adapt. How does it feel after a minute, after the exercise? The same, a little better, much better?”
A little better. It gets even better the next day.
“You see. Nothing to worry about.”
As of what is, I had already noticed with myself that after the exercises everything is fine and then in the evening it gets worse again. Especially when I do new exercises.
“When new movement patterns are stimulated, it’s unfamiliar at first. It’s as if you’re going to do everything with the other hand from now on. Occasionally, you may feel that the pain is much worse than before. In medicine this is called initial worsening. This is a sign that new patterns are forming, to put it very simply. The important thing then is not to stop.”
But pain still occurs. I’m just unsure, you know.
“Well, that can also be due to the fact that you are stretching too intensively. As a guideline, I always give my clients the following information: Imagine a scale of 1.0 -10.0 would be no pain.
10 is the range where you as the performer have to mentally and physically strain against it. The range to find is between 8 and 10. You will also notice that a 9 on the scale becomes an 8 or 7 after a few seconds. Then the stretch is adjusted again to 8 -10. Was that understandable?”
Almost. How do I find out what level 10 means for me?
“For example, when you stretch your neck and relax the rest of your body and breathe calmly. But you only feel the stretch in the desired area, that would be correct. Now understandable?”
All right, thank you.
