Why Traditional Pain Relief Fails—and How a Brain-Based Approach Can Help
Isn’t it curious how some of our worst injuries come from the most unexpected moments?
A few years ago, I was groggily walking to my car in the morning when—BAM!—I ran face-first into a massive spiderweb. My immediate reaction? Flailing my arms, shaking my head, and trying to brush it off. But in that split second, I felt a sharp twinge in my neck. That tiny, ridiculous moment led to weeks of neck pain.
Looking back, if I had understood what I know now about the neurology of pain and movement, I probably could have recovered faster—maybe even prevented the injury altogether.
Ever thrown out your back from nothing?
Maybe you were picking up a rogue Hot Wheel off the floor, handing your kid a snack in the back seat of the car or reaching awkwardly for your purse—and suddenly, you’re in agony. It’s frustrating when pain feels completely out of proportion to the movement that caused it.
But when you understand pain neuroscience, these moments start to make sense. Let’s dive deeper into the jobs of the nervous system and brain.
The Nervous System Has 3 Primary Jobs:
Receive sensory input from both inside your body and the external environment through all your senses—vision, hearing, touch, proprioception (body awareness), and more.
Interpret sensory signals and decide what to do about them.
Create a motor output (movement, tension, or even pain) based on that decision. Yes! Pain is an output!
The Brain’s Two Parts: Survival vs. Performance
Your brain can be divided into two functional parts:
The “Old Brain” (Survival Brain):
This part only cares about keeping you safe. It’s constantly interpreting sensory input and asking, “Is this safe?” If it perceives a threat—it will take action to protect you. That could mean limiting strength, restricting movement, or creating symptoms like fatigue or pain.
The “New Brain” (Performance Brain):
This part allows for more complex movements, problem-solving, and higher-level athletic performance—but it can only function optimally when the survival brain isn’t overwhelmed.
Key Things to Know About Pain:
Pain is produced in the brain.
It’s not just about tissue damage—your brain decides whether you feel pain based on all kinds of factors.
Pain ≠ injury, and injury ≠ pain.
You can have pain without any physical damage and injuries that don’t hurt at all.
Pain is the brain’s strongest behavior change tool.
It’s a signal telling you to do something differently.
Pain is part of our survival system.
It can be triggered by physical, emotional, or even cognitive stress.
Pain is as unique as a fingerprint.
A ballet dancer with a broken toe will experience pain differently than a pianist with the same injury. And vice versa—a pianist with a broken pinky will likely feel more distress than a dancer with the same issue. The more an injury disrupts your happiness, hobbies, or income, the more intense the pain experience tends to be.
Pain affects more than just muscles and joints.
It can influence your nervous system, endocrine system, and even immune function.
The Threat Bucket Analogy:
One of the best ways to understand pain is through the “threat bucket” concept, popularized by Dr. Perry Nickelston and other experts in applied neurology.
Picture this:
You have an invisible bucket inside you that collects all the stressors and threats you encounter—physical pain, emotional stress, poor sleep, processed foods, worries about life, etc.
When your bucket overflows, your nervous system hits its limit. That’s often when pain flares up—sometimes from something as minor as reaching into the back seat.
The solution?
Reduce what’s filling your threat bucket. This could mean improving sleep, nutrition, stress management, and movement strategies. When your nervous system isn’t constantly overwhelmed, your body has more capacity for pain-free movement.
Take a moment to reflect—
What’s in your threat bucket?
What can you remove or reduce?
How a Brain-Based Approach Can Help:
Traditional pain relief often focuses on symptoms—like stretching, strengthening, or massaging the painful area. But if your nervous system is on high alert, those approaches might not be enough.
Instead of just addressing outputs (like pain, stiffness, or weakness), a brain-based approach looks at inputs—the sensory information your brain is using to make movement decisions in the first place.
My goal as a brain-based movement coach is to find and retrain input problems so your brain can optimize movement.
Pain isn’t one-size-fits-all—neither should your approach to relief.
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