In my never-ending quest to make things easier for patients to understand, I have found myself drafting, refining, and tossing out many different explanations. There’s always better ways to help patients understand their bodies. Using medical jargon that only health care providers geek out about won’t serve any purpose except to reiterate to oneself that brushing up on the communication skills is needed. Real value of connecting and teaching comes from the ability to communicate and transfer information into digestible content that the ones we serve can understand.
With that in mind, there are two key words that I’ve found to help explain injuries, and the healing process - load and pressure. Yup, that’s right. Personally, I tend to favor the word “load” more than “pressure,” but they can virtually be used interchangeably. Both words have the same value in explaining its connection to injuries and healing.
Load and pressure is just a simply way to say: a change to the environment, an alteration to equilibrium, a challenge to the body, a stressor that the body has to adapt to. If you recall exercise physiology, then it’s kind of like the S.A.I.D. Principle - Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand - where adding stress will cause the body to accommodate, adapt, change, and withstand that stressor.
These broad terms of load and pressure encompasses both external and internal perturbations including, but not limited to: breathing, gravity, sensory input from the skin, fascia and joints, sensory information from the vestibular and visual systems, dumbbells, kettlebells, medicine balls, sandbags, resistive bands, instrument assisted soft tissue mobilization tools, kinesiology tapes, etc. As you can see, load and pressure is an umbrella term that can be used across may facets of the injury-healing process; it helps categorize and simplify concepts for the patient.
I like to explain that our bodies accommodate, adapt, and get aggravated by various loads and pressures from those things that were just described. If the load exceeds the body’s capacity, then injury occurs. For example, if I stacked 1000 lbs worth of plates on a bar and asked you to front squat that puppy, I’m pretty sure something on you will break. On the flip side, if the load is less than, or meets, the body’s capacity, then potential adaptation and growth can occur. It’s like having someone train and comfortably squat with weights that are 70% of their 1-rep max. For those of you that like it broken down even more:
Load > Capacity = Injury*
Load < (or =) Capacity = Adaptation*
When put in these understandable terms and in this simple “equation,” patients seem to nod their head in agreement with an audible “ahh” accompanied by it. To reinforce the message and to see how much they understood, you can always have them explain in their own words what you just explained; or have them ask additional questions about their condition so they are more engaged. When it comes to patients’ health, you always want to encourage an opened conversation versus playing a theatrical monologue.
So may I suggest to try using these simple terms - load and pressure? They are easy to understand, easy for patients to relate to, and the concept can be used interchangeably along the whole spectrum of the injury-healing process.
Communicating into words that patients could understand is a key element as a Performance Clinician. The more a patient can understand what is going on with their bodies, and realize what is trying to be accomplished with treatment, the more it will boost up the likelihood of them buying into you, and your recommendations. Those that are on the same page will make the healing journey more enjoyable as they start to take responsibility of their own health, and with more understandable directions.
Change your mindset … Change your perspective … life is much better when you have an outlook that creates opportunity.
Thanks for being curious and taking the time to read this! Hope it added value to your life and equips you to become better than you were yesterday!
Dr. Joe Jaime, DC, DACBSP®, ATC, CSCS®, FRC®ms, CES
* Derived from Functional Range Condition®
Credit: Image