While I can’t remember where I heard it first, I have always loved the water hose analogy when describing the steps to help someone get out of pain.
It goes like this:
Imagine that you are watering your garden and things are going perfectly fine until the water stops running.
You are perplexed and begin following the water hose until you discover that Dennis The Menace has jumped the fence and is standing on your hose! After yelling at him, he gets off the hose and crosses back to his side of the fence.
Upon turning around, you walk back to the end of the hose but discover there still isn’t any water.
Then, you turn back around, follow the hose to where Dennis was, but he isn’t there. Following the hose, you see that the water spout has been turned off. Turning the water spout back on, you turn around yet again and walk back to where you were watering the yard. There STILL isn’t any water.
Now you retrace your footsteps a third time – you check and see that Dennis isn’t standing on the hose, then check and see that the water spout is turned on, and then head to the water pump. The pump isn’t working correctly so you fix that and all seems well; except when you get back to the nozzle the water STILL isn’t flowing.
At this point, you ask “Did I forget to pay the water bill!?!”
A better solution in this instance is to make sure you paid the water bill first, then check the water pump, then check the water spout, then make sure that Dennis The Menace isn’t standing on your hose.
This could save so much back and forth.
I use a similar approach when someone comes to me and has something that hurts:
1. A basic movement screen to ensure you aren’t doing things you should be doing in the first place.
2. Check your tissue quality. Does foam-rolling hurt? Then that’s probably your problem right there 😉
3. Look at your core stability and breathing mechanics. I feel like 90% of people’s issues can be ‘fixed’ by learning some basic core stability drills.
4. Loosen something up. Once you have identified and eliminated movements that are going to be painful, have addressed your tissue quality and learned to brace and breathe correctly, we can start to move some commonly ‘tight’ muscles around.
That’s it!
9 times out of 10 I can help someone with those 4 steps within an hour.
And if I can’t help someone within an hour, then I’ll refer out.
But again, 90% of the time we can get you fixed up within an hour by avoiding a ton of back and forth.
If you have something in particular that hurts feel free to message me and I can point you in the right direction for following these steps and getting some immediate relief.
Nate
P.S. Whenever you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you get happier and healthier:
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