3 Steps to Assessing Pain: Are You Hurt or Injured?

Pain is inevitable. It’s a side effect of pushing your body to the limit, but also of having bad technique or simply bad luck.

Thankfully the human body is adept at healing itself. Given a little down-time the body can perform remarkable feats of recovery and have you feeling good as new. Of course, often it’s going to need our help, specifically in the type of recovery required,?and also, we need to know what we can still do while the healing is taking place. The last thing you want is to aggravate it or hurt something else due to a lack of understanding.

Fortunately there is an article from Breaking Muscle that is out to help us diagnose what the type of?pain we’re experiencing is:

Pain and injury, while they often go hand in hand, are not the same thing. Just because you?re hurt doesn?t mean you?re injured, and it?s entirely possible you could have an injury that doesn?t cause you constant pain. But while minor aches and pains can frequently be resolved independently, legitimate injuries often require the attention of a medical profession.

They then?go on to describe different symptoms and signs of both types, allowing us to better understand what’s wrong, such as acknowledging whether it is swollen, inflamed, or bruised:

Serious injuries usually have overt physical symptoms. They may not occur immediately, but if you pop a ligament or cause significant soft tissue damage, there will probably be some visual cues. If you can?t tell whether or not your joint is swollen or bruised, it probably isn?t. Comparing to your opposite side may help your determination. But for the most part, the stuff that would indict an injury will be right there staring you in the face.

Check out the rest of the article for the complete list of tips, and start using them whenever you’r unsure of what’s ailing you.