Is Pain Really Bad for Performance?
June 27th, 2009
·
by Mike T Nelson · Filed Under: Uncategorized
Greetings!
I just have a sec here since Jodie is stopping by this AM for a special surprise for me! I don’t know what she has planned for the day, but I am sure it will be fun.
While I was doing some early AM research (yikes, that makes me sound like an even bigger geek), I found this study below about pain and performance.
In general, pain wil limit performance. If you are in pain, the best thing you can do to boost your strength is to get out of pain! Pain becomes a huge priority in the body.
I wish the study would have actually measured strength, since the changes they describe may or may not alter strength. Since it was not measured, from this study, we don’t know.
See the following studies that did look at this though from a previous post I did
Needles in Nerves and Jumping Out of Planes
The abstract
-
J Physiol. 2009 Jan 15;587(Pt 1):183-93. Epub 2008 Nov 17
-
Effects of deep and superficial experimentally induced acute pain on muscle sympathetic nerve activity in human subjects.
Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute, Sydney, NSW 2031, Australia.
Human
studies conducted more than half a century ago have suggested that
superficial pain induces excitatory effects on the sympathetic nervous
system, resulting in increases in blood pressure (BP) and heart rate
(HR), whereas deep pain is believed to cause vasodepression. To date,
no studies have addressed whether deep or superficial pain produces
such differential effects on muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA).
Using microneurography we recorded spontaneous MSNA from the common
peroneal nerve in 13 awake subjects. Continuous blood pressure was
recorded by radial arterial tonometry. Deep pain was induced by
intramuscular injection of 0.5 ml hypertonic saline (5%) into the
tibialis anterior muscle, superficial pain by subcutaneous injection of
0.2 ml hypertonic saline into the overlying skin. Muscle pain, with a
mean rating of 4.9 +/- 0.8 (S.E.M.) on a 0-10 visual analog scale (VAS)
and lasting on average 358 +/- 32 s, caused significant increases in
MSNA (43.9 +/- 10.0%), BP (5.4 +/- 1.1%) and HR (7.0 +/- 2.0%) – not
the expected decreases. Skin pain, rated at 4.9 +/- 0.6 and lasting 464
+/- 54 s, also caused significant increases in MSNA (38.2 +/- 12.8%),
BP (5.1 +/- 2.1%) and HR (5.6 +/- 2.0%). The high-frequency (HF) to
low-frequency (LF) ratio of heart rate variability (HRV) increased from
1.54 +/- 0.25 to 2.90 +/- 0.45 for muscle pain and 2.80 +/- 0.52 for
skin pain. Despite the different qualities of deep (dull and diffuse)
and superficial (burning and well-localized) pain,CONCLUSION We conclude that
pain originating in muscle and skin does not exert a differential
effect on muscle sympathetic nerve activity, both causing an increase
in MSNA and an increase in the LF:HF ratio of HRV. Whether this holds
true for longer lasting experimental pain remains to be seen.Rock on!
PS
Any questions on this study, post them in the comments and I will get back to you there. Comments are cool.
Comments RSS 
Hey Mike, me again cool post
So for the kettle bells I was practicing my flexibility with the wall squats everything went well, other then my muscle flexibility in my groin? Or I believe those are muscles. What would you recommend, I could always foam roll although i haven’t as often since starting z health mobility system.
thank you
Hi there buddy! Thanks for the comment.
I would try a very slow, cross body Z Health shoulder circle.
Try a position where you can feel a “stretch” in the groin, stabilize yourself in a non stretched position (hold on to a chair if you need to), do the X body shoulder circle, retest again.
This is an educated guess, so if you tell me what movement you feel limited in, I can give you a better answer
It will look similar (but not exactly) to his hip flexor/mobility video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wmg_jGvuuA
Let me know how it goes!
Mike N
Thank you for the video
The effect of increased muscle flexibility is because the stretch corresponds with the joint.
(Hip flexor>>>Hip) Then since the the shoulder is the joint that (Insert stuff about neurons paths crossing… I don’t understand this concept but I see that they effect each other) is also a ball and socket joint as it increases and relaxes nervers the nerves send a signal to relax the hip flexor which in turn cause increased flexibility because the Golgi tendon is allowing it?
Honestly just a guess, I could be a 100% wrong… Next post idea! Explain the concept of how this works?
Pretty close. To be honest, the exact science behind it is just being unraveled as their are only a handful of studies on it, but the basic concept is that humans are wired as bipeds–so as your RIGHT leg moves as you walk (gait), your LEFT arm should move also to be most efficient. Try walking very fast withOUT moving your arms–feels off and slow.
Here is a link to one study
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~ferrisdp/Kao&Ferris,MC.pdf
Hope that helps a bit and excellent question!
Rock on
Mike T Nelson
Pain & ability to generate force – My guess is that pain signals travel simultaniously over two pathways, one that initiates a rapid forceful withdrawal reflex (sensory data to thalamus, to amygdala to create a fast fear based motor response) and the second that travels more slowly (sensory data to amygdala, to cortex for analysis/decision re initiation of fast, slow or no motor response). So, I think it will be fun to watch what future research determines are really the critical factors that determine muscle strength.
Very interesting Noel. Do think the second response is slower since there is more cognition/thought involved in it?
Rock on!
Mike T Nelson