Tissue
If you have caused damage to soft tissues, you will feel some pain until your healing is complete and your function is fully restored. During the healing process it is important that you avoid movements that pull the healing surfaces apart. For example, if you have overstretched the ligaments of the lower back by bending forward, it is likely that any repetition of this movement will continue to open and separate the healing tissues, and this will delay healing. If, on the other hand, you avoid bending forward and instead retain the hollow (the lumbar lordosis) in the lower back, the damaged surfaces will remain together and healing will not be interrupted. In the same way, if your pain is in the neck, it is important that you avoid bending your neck forward and instead retain the smaller hollow (the cervical lordosis) in your neck.
To illustrate, let’s again use the finger, but in a different way. Instead of focusing on overstretching the finger, let’s imagine that you have cut your finger across the back of the knuckle. If you were to bend the injured finger joint every day, you would open up the wound and delay healing. But if you were to keep the finger straight for about a week, you would allow the healing surfaces to stay together, and complete healing would result. Once healing was complete, you could bend the finger without risking further damage. Similarly, if you maintain the correct posture and allow your back or neck to heal, you will be able to resume normal bending of each without damage or pain. stiffness, or both, in the back or neck. Such problems may persist for years. Even though the original damage has repaired, the scar itself may restrict movement and cause pain when overstretched.
But there’s more. When tissues heal, they form scar tissue, which is less elastic than normal tissue and tends to shorten over time. If shortening has occurred, movement may stretch the scars and cause pain. Unless appropriate exercises are performed to restore normal flexibility, the healed tissues may become a continuous source of pain or
