What Should We Be Able To Do?

How to find a path that takes your unique abilities into account.

This is a story, a story about a young woman with chronic pain, let’s call her Sarah.

Sarah is 22 years old, she is thin and “fit” looking with an athletic build and a history of an active lifestyle. However, under the surface, she has a long history of injury and pain. Sarah has had persistent knee pain for about 6 months. As a fitness instructor, she knows the basics of what to do. She has increased general recovery (stretching, foam rolling, walking, and stabilizing exercises), decreased impact exercises (jumping, running, or skipping), and increased low-impact stability work for the lower body. 

After a few visits to a Chiropractor, she decides to see a Physical Therapist to better understand her muscular imbalances and learn what exercises to focus on.  Sarah feels like she was doing everything “right”, yet she was still having issues of persistent pain, she hopes to get some answers from the Physical Therapist.

Upon getting analyzed by the Physical Therapists, things looked mostly good.  A slight imbalance in the quadriceps strength, but otherwise ok. He gives her a method to tape the knee and sends her on her way, saying to use tape until the pain persists. 

Before Sarah leaves, she asks about her current movement routine. 

  • Can she run, do barre, or lifts weights? 
  • What is the best way to go about it considering the issues with her knee?

The Physical Therapist looks up from his notes and said, “You are young and healthy, you should be able to do all of that!”

________

Now why this may sound encouraging. And likely this physical therapist wants her to feel like she can do it. But….

What about Sarah’s unique experience?

The Problem With Categorization:

This is a common way health and fitness professionals speak to people—categorizing someone and stating what is expected based on their age, gender, history, or how they look. Wording “encouragement” in a way that implies that there are no physical barriers and thus any issue is internal, mental, or psychosomatic. 

While this is not always the case, sometimes this comes from the perspective that anyone who is young and looks healthy should be able to do any physical activities. However, this is false. Many suffer from conditions that inhibit them look normal and healthy. 

TO name a few:

But what if someone’s experience doesn’t match the set of boxes they check for age, weight, history, etc.? And if they can’t do the normal activity without issue? What if they have abnormal pain or discomfort? 

Categories exist for a reason, there is validity to most of them and they can be a good place to start. However, they can also cause issues in someone’s ability to find what works for them individually. It doesn’t take into account the person standing in front of us, instead, I believe in recognizing a person’s strengths and limits. Instead of asking what should I be able to do, a better question might be one of the following.

  • What do I like to do?
  • What feels good for me?
  • What helps me reach my goals?

This story is actually about me. It was a point in my life where I felt I was trying so hard and kept running into the same answer, you should be able to do that. The honest answer at the time was that I could not. I needed to work my way up to running, weights, and other activities to be able to do them pain-free. If this story sounds familiar and you are looking for a different approach, contact me here to find out how you can break out of the box and find unique solutions that truly work for you.

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