Inflammation and injury

Inflammation sounds bad doesn't it?

Actually inflammation is normally a good thing! It is your bodies way of repairing damaged tissue. It works by slowly reinforcing the weakness caused by your injury.

You may have noticed when you were first injured it wasn't too sore or stiff. Then you sat down or laid down for a while, and the pain is so much worse now! Thats down to inflammation. Your body has recognised the damage done to it and started to get to work on repairing it.

But why is it more painful now? Your brain can recognise that there is now more inflammation in the area and now gives you more pain to protect the injury from further damage! It's definitely working right?

While inflammation is good to repair your injury, it is not good to remain at rest for long periods of time. As you have probably experienced, the pain and stiffness increase the longer you are sedentary. Therefore, mobilisation exercises are needed to reduce stiffness and aid the repair process.