Therapy thoughts (24/7/ 25) - Should we be moving faster not slower for painful problems?

Should we be moving faster not slower for painful problems?

Surely exercise & movement should be slow and controlled right? We wouldn't want to hurt ourselves or our patients after all. 

Here goes for something controversial, I often get my patients to move quicker not slower. 

I love the quote "thoughtless, fearless movement" from the great Louis Gifford. The majority of the time when we want to pick something up, we are not consciously setting our bodies perfectly & moving super slowly. In fact, we often just want to get it off the floor as quick as possible. It doesn't even enter our thoughts to do anything else

But after we get injured that changes. 

This slow & fearful behaviour is often exactly what I see from my patients, controlled, deliberate movement designed to avoid anything that might cause problems to the system. 

This is often a fear of clinicians and coaches who are scared of not wanting to make the problem worse, so also keep this "safe" movement.

But what if that is actually a problem itself? That the slow & safe movement becomes part of the layers of behaviours that may actually maintain the problem, and is further reinforced by how clinicians & coaches approach movement & exercises. 

There was even a paper on this last week from the CFT guys. 

"Increases in trunk velocity during lifting are associated with improvements in disability and self-efficacy in people with chronic low back pain during cognitive functional therapy: a longitudinal analysis of the RESTORE trial"

They found.....

"In people with lifting-related LBP undergoing CFT, increased trunk velocity during lifting showed potentially large correlations with reductions in disability and improvements in pain self-efficacy"

So next time, instead of slowing it down and playing it safe, lose the fear and get people back to that "thoughtless & fearless movement"