Kinesiophobia! 

Sounds like a pretty severe phobia doesn’t it. 

Basically it’s a fear of movement. 

They’ve done studies on people who have dislocated or subluxed their shoulders. Then had them surgically repaired with a solid physio based rehab program. They are objectively in great  shape, yet anytime they lift their arm out to the side, using some rotation, they hit the panic button. 

They’ve also done similar studies in people who hurt their backs bending forward. For months, to years afterwards, alarm bells start ringing when they have to bend forward. 

Another example is when someone's been told by a surgeon “i’ll see you in 3 years for a knee replacement” so the patient purposely uses their knee as little as possible to make it “last”.

Our job as Physiotherapists is to restore confidence and stop kinesiophobia. We purposely challenge people in areas that provoke a lack of confidence, so as to prove and strengthen the body's resilience.

I recently treated a patient who slipped and tore her hamstring almost completely off the bone. She was barely able to walk for months'. I worked with her over a quarter year period. She was running again, super confident with every step. I then purposely added an exercise where she had replicate the movement she injured herself with. There was no muscle resistance needed for this exercise, it just required sliding her leg out. To put it into context she was able to single leg hamstring curl 30kg and dead lift 60kg. But the movement out to the side triggered old emotions around the accident and fear. We had to work through that to break the “ghost” of the injury and award her more movement options to live a better life. 

We always wait until you're strong enough to challenge areas being rehabilitated, however it does trigger emotions around the initial injury. BUT it’s important to work through them.

It’s vital so that you can go and live your life again, doing what you love without that ghost injury constantly haunting you