I underwent my second session of fake indoor rock climbing yesterday (prior one had been a week before) and this morning had considerable pain involving various gripping-related muscles and/or tendons in my upper arm and inner elbow. It was bad enough that I was having trouble with driving and with picking things up at the grocery store.
I took some ibuprofin, and the pain is all but gone now.
This is nice, but it leads me to wonder–now that I can freely use my hand in all the beautiful ways it was intended to be used without pain, should I? Wasn’t the pain there to tell me something? Do I need to be putting my hands on R&R for a day or two?
If so, might it have been better simply not to take the pain relief medication in the first place? It’s easier to refrain from using an injured body part when that body part sends immediate, unmistakable pain signals to the brain upon misuse…
Some pain medications actually slow down the healing process. I rode my bicycle hard for 55 miles on Saturday and didn’t take any pain meds as I knew that I was going to ride 50+ miles again on Sunday.
Sore muscle pain is good in a way. It means that you’re muscle fibers are being rebuilt stronger.
In some forms of arthritis it’s better to keep using what hurts but maybe not so hard. I have an arthritic hip and knee so I don’t run anymore. However I do walk long distances including half marathons plus I ride a bicycle now.
However other pains, such as torn muscles, tendonitis, etc. are bad. Your best bet is to not use what ever is hurting.
I was always really annoyed by those "Haven’t got time for the pain"comercials they used to have. If you are doing something that is causing severe pain, masking the pain so you can continue the activity is not good.
This morning I was having doubts as to whether I’d even be able to climb again tomorrow morning–wasn’t sure I’d be able to hold myself up.
Now that the pain has subsided, I no longer feel that way.
Now say I still feel fine tomorrow morning. Should it then be okay to go ahead and climb? Or would the ibuprofin’s effects conceivably stretch that far in time, such that I should not trust the lack of pain even tomorrow morning?
Ibuprofen is an minor analgesic and anti-inflammatory. It’s not some miracle pain killer in that it makes all pain disappear. It mostly takes the edge off the nerves sending the pain signal.
As said, yes, pain is our body’s way of saying, “Hey, something wrong!” But once you know how severe it is, you can make the decision to tell it to shut up if you have the means.
As for your followup question, have you stopped taking ibuprofen? If so, and there’s no pain, maybe you’re all mended? Try putting some stronger stress on the part you injured. If you feel pain, you’re still not yet healed. Ibuprofen alone isn’t going to reduce pain that far.
I’ve long thought that people who go on about the wisdom of the body obviously don’t have any major health problems. My body’s an effing idiot.
I never took those ads to mean you should keep doing whatever activity gave you the pain. I thought it was so you could go back to your grown-up life and feel less crappy than you rightfully should.
Do Band-Aids and Bactine encourage you to cut yourself? Does having a gun at home for defense of your property encourage you to put your jewels and furs and antiques near the window where they can be seen from the street? Does having immunization from the 'flu encourage you to get coughed on?
Would having the shit beat out of you by a really big guy with a club deter you from hurting yourself?