Exercising with Repetitive Stress Injuries

First of all: the term "stress injury" seems to refer most commonly to repetitive stress injuries, or repetitive strain injuries. One such type of injury is a stress fracture, which I will not be dealing with in this article. More commonly, the term refers to connective tissue, cartilage and tendon issues, such as carpal tunnel syndrome and tendinitis: inflammatory injuries. These are the types of injuries I will be dealing with in this article.

1. Stretch, stretch, stretch. I cannot recommend this enough! Stretches alone have done wonders for my tendinitis and carpal tunnel symptoms, but these are not the typical "push as far as you can" stretches you learned from your gym teacher. In fact, for several painful years I discounted the possibility that stretches could help, because I was already stretching - or so I thought - and it wasn't helping.

There are specialized, light, slow stretches that do not focus on stretching the muscle, but rather stretch the connective tissue, which is usually responsible for the pain a sufferer experiences. I recommend a book called Conquering Carpal Tunnel and Other Repetitive Strain Injuries, by Sharon J. Butler. It offers
a number of routines that are hard to believe; they seem to do nothing until you've done them for about two weeks to a month, and then you notice that your pain is improving and so is your range of motion. The book contains stretches for hands, wrists, elbows, upper arms and neck and back.

2. Light exercises with dumbbells. Yes, the little hand dumbbells that aren't very good for building muscle are great for keeping your hands and arms happy.
By experimenting with slow, careful motion, you can isolate the part of your body that is causing the pain and work it lightly to increase flexibility.

3. Feldenkrais Method classes. These sessions are about helping you to learn how your own body moves, and how to work with it, not against it. No matter where you are suffering a repetitive stress injury or other form of pain, the method can help you move around the pain source and learn to improve your whole range of movement so that you put less stress on the afflicted part in the long term. It can be obscure, but it's worth finding your local practitioner. Use your favorite search engine to find classes in your area, or search out bulletin boards at natural food stores, natural health practitioners' offices, gyms and spas.

4. Anti-inflammatories and painkillers. This include both drugs like aspirin and ibuprofen (be careful and don't overdo these), herbal medicine like turmeric and MSM, and topicals, which range from capsaicin cream (yowwch! It took the pain out of my back, but left my skin smarting) to menthol to the trusty homeopathic Arnica gel.

5. Don't push too hard. Finally, remember your limits - it's only by making sure to rest your body that you can restore movement and energy to all parts of it. Don't do something that you know will cause you pain. Don't stretch too hard, either. Remember, when you can feel the muscle stretch, the tendon is not relaxing into its full range of movement. Instead explore light movements in the same direction, and determine why that movement might hurt you. Pinpointing the problem so that you can target it with specific stretches, massage, and anti-inflammatory topicals like Arnica gel, and reduce your pain before moving on.