Accumulation of Strain
The common understanding of pain and injury is that there is only a problem when there is pain.
And there is no pain there are no problems in our bodies.
Also, when pain problems occur and enough time for healing has passed (up to 3 months), then there are again no problems in the body–even when pain persists.
The Accumulation of Strain model offers a more holistic understanding.
When we use neuroscience to measure how our nervous systems protect our bodies we are able to see problems that we aren’t consciously aware of.
We can test and measure problems in our bodies when there is no pain, as well as when there is pain.
When pain persists beyond 3 months and after all the healing is complete we can also test and measure the problems in our bodies that are the reason for the persisting pain.
These problems can be referred to as strain, dysfunctions, or just ‘non-ideal’ functions of parts of our nerves, joints and muscles.
This type of strain problem is a measurable protective reaction of the nervous system. For example, protective reactions are non-ideal muscle firing and hyper-sensitive nerve endings.
Most commonly we see this type of strain accumulate in specific body parts throughout our lives–because of us repeating unhelpful postures, forces, or movements. Sometimes we can be aware of some parts of accumulated strain, for example, tight hamstring or hip flexor muscles, or stiff neck or back movements.
Problems become painful when the strain increases over a threshold when the nervous system needs to increase protection–due to the ‘last straw’ that ‘breaks the camel’s back’. This ‘last straw’ can be any movement or trauma, even as simple as bending over to put on shoes, running across the road to avoid traffic, or lifting something awkwardly.
The video below is a summary of the accumulation of strain model.
Also, learn more about how we measure accumulated strain and fix these problems at this Younigfy page: Understand Pain & Injury with Neuroscience.