Many people walk in the door with pain. The have accepted it, or become conditioned to it. Most times if asked about any injuries or pain, they’ll say “no,” not because they are trying to hide it, but because they forget – it’s always there.
Often they’ll blame the pain in an acute incident, a run, moving house.. most of the time though there are chronic habits in play. The goal is to see what patterns or habits might not be serving them – which habits might be cultivating the tension or pain.
Here are four places one could start:
1. Tell me about your work, how many hours per day to you spend seated?
2. What type of shoes do you where at work? What about at home/on the weekend? Do you spend much time barefoot?
3. Tell me about your sleep habits, do you feel like you sleep soundly? Through the night? Do you wake up at 1 or 2am often?
4. Standing postural and breathing assessment. Posture is important obviously, but breathing patterns tell us a lot. Mouth breather? Over-breather? How they’re breathing..?
Overall, these questions cover work, sleep, standing and breathing – we are effectively in at least one of these states at all times, so they become very important.
