Top 5 Fridays! 5 Facts About Exercise Induced Hypoalgesia

EIH has been widely studied in both pain free individuals and persons with persistent pain showing both short term effects initially after one exercise session, with other evidence suggesting longer term higher pain thresholds after consistent activity.

5 Facts About Exercise Induced Hypoalgesia by Cameron Faller

Certain central mechanisms exist with the belief that exercise is able to decrease pain by reducing temporal summation and improving conditioned pain modulation.

To provide better application in understanding its effect with different contexts, here are 5 known facts that as of date the research supports.

👉Exercise Does Not Need To Be Specific - EIH is able to be reproducible with aerobic, isometric, and dynamic types of exercise.

👉Intensity and Duration are Dependent on Type of Exercise - Pain free individuals experienced greater EIH with the higher intensity in aerobic exercise. Conversely, EIH was greater with low to moderate intensity exercises in individuals with chronic pain. Hyperalgesia was experienced the higher the intensity for this population.

👉Regular Exercise May Result in Higher Pain Thresholds - Research supports that individuals who are more active and physically fit display higher pain tolerances compared to inactive individuals.

👉Exercise Can Be Joint Dependent - Pain free individuals experienced higher pain thresholds in the joint they were exercising; however, individuals with pain experienced greater EIH when exercising non-painful joints. This population may actually experience hyperalgesia in exercising the painful joint.

👉Beliefs and Expectations Matter - Preconceived beliefs about exercise and pain will dictate the amount of pain someone experiences post exercise. Using an appropriate narrative with words of healing helps decrease hyperalgesia in persons with persistent pain.

The above implications can be comprised from over 150 studies investigating EIH, however, more literature is needed with appropriate controls to truly understand the phenomenon of EIH.

Nonetheless, this evidence should give us the confidence to promote enjoyable physical activity and movement with hopes to make individuals stronger and more resilient in managing pain.

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This article was originally posted on Modern Manual Therapy Blog

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