Ouch!

Is pain changing your riding position?

- Christie Wolhuter

In this article Christie looks at the role pain can play in altering our riding position. She takes us through a case study of a dressage rider who encountered upper back pain that negatively impacted her seat, and thus her performance when riding.

A NOTE ON THE PAIN PROBLEM

Pain is a powerful nervous system motivator. The human brain finds many ways to get around pain, and a lot of the methods we employ to avoid pain are subconscious and pervasive. Unfortunately, many of these manifestations of pain, in a large part because they are subconscious, will remain even after the pain has subsided.

There is a purpose for pain. In an acute setting, pain serves as a warning of possible danger, and helps to prevent you from doing the same motions that caused the pain in the first place, while the tissue is in the process of healing. Paul Ingraham puts it brilliantly: “Pain is a message – a sort of public service announcement from your brain about a credible threat.”

In some cases, however, the effects of the pain and even sometimes the pain itself persist, long after the tissue has actually healed. This is where, biologically, there is no further purpose for this pain or dysfunction and things can get complicated. With regards to lower back pain, for example, studies have shown that once the pain has settled, dysfunction in the lower back stabilisers may persist. Put simply, it is sometimes noted that weakness in the muscles surrounding the spine can follow a lower back incident, even after the pain is gone. Part of the reason for this is thought to be that an individual often moves less when they are experiencing acute pain, and this may subconsciously form a habit after the pain has settled. Therefore, even though the pain has gone, the effects are still evident.