046 Is There an Advantage to Pain Free Rehab?

Pain Science and Sensibility

These questions arise very frequently in rehabilitation. Should it hurt? Is it OK if it hurts? Will I set myself back if it hurts? Will I get better if it doesn't hurt? In this episode we examine a pair of articles that examine these questions. One article is an RCT that covers pain free vs. painful exercise in an acutely injured population, while the other is a systematic review and meta analysis of the approach in chronic pain populations.

Pain-Free Versus Pain-Threshold Rehabilitation Following Acute Hamstring Strain Injury: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Hickey JT, Timmins RG, Maniar N, Rio E, Hickey PF, Pitcher CA, Williams MD, Opar DA. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2020 Feb;50(2):91-103. doi: 10.2519/jospt.2020.8895.

Should exercises be painful in the management of chronic musculoskeletal pain? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Smith BE, Hendrick P, Smith TO, Bateman M, Moffatt F, Rathleff MS, Selfe J, Logan P. Br J Sports Med. 2017 Dec;51(23):1679-1687. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2016-097383. Epub 2017 Jun 8.

Due to copyright laws, unless the article is open source we cannot legally post the PDF on the website for the world to download at will. That said, if you are having difficulty obtaining an article, contact us.

Music by Kevin MacLeod - incompetech.com: Intro - Brandenburg No4 and Meatball Parade Close - Meatball Parade