New Research: Stretching Reduces Perception of Pain

Today we're talking about how stretching can help with pain and what current research says about stretching and pain relief.

Watch the video below, or on YouTube: https://youtu.be/HIp2NnObhiY
  

At Superior, we know that the right kind of stretching and movement relieves pain because that's what we do. We get great results for our patients here at Superior Physical Therapy. But scientific research also backs up what we are doing with real data.
  

Researchers from Canada recently published a study in the Scandinavian Journal of Pain showing the benefits stretching has on our perception of pain. Researchers found that even before there is an improvement in range of motion or flexibility through stretching, there is a noticeable reduction in pain for areas that have been stretched. Researchers believe that stretching actually changes our brain's perception of pain. If I were to pinch my skin, it won’t bother me too much if I do it lightly. But if I continue to increase the pressure, eventually I’m going to reach my pain tolerance threshold and stop pinching. In this study, stretching actually raised the pain threshold of the participants. The immediate effects of stretching, then, are that you have less perception of pain afterwards.
  

And that is our goal as physical therapists, we get our patients to move better so they don't hurt as much. Now we have data that show stretching reduces pain by simply messing with the brain a little bit.
  

If you would like the ability to move better and have less pain, we have a new program at Superior Physical Therapy for non-patients. This is for people who are not injured. They just want to move better and feel better. It's called Stretch Me.
  

By going to the Stretch ME website at StretchMeTC.com you can try a free session. Just click on the upper, left-hand corner of the website. We hope you will give it a try and reap the benefits of stretching.

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