It happens virtually daily in our clinic. An athlete or active person comes in looking for relief and results. He wants to get back to what he loves. Not tomorrow. He wants his pain gone – today. We then evaluate, treat and educate the patient on how to improve his outcome. When his appointment starts to wrap up, we inevitably hear, “may I exercise through pain?”

We Understand

All of us at COOR Wellness are active or athletic. We understand your plight and your frustration. Our team wants to see you exercising and moving. More importantly, we want you moving and exercising correctly and pain free 10 years from now.

Athletic Audit Process (AAP) ®

The Athletic Audit Process (AAP) assists our wanting-to-move-now patients in continuing to exercise with their condition. It is a way of discovering what can be done within painless parameters to avoid causing further injury or damage. Most of all, it helps you continue to exercise and acquire the great benefits of exercise.

What is the AAP?

The AAP is the process we use with our athletic or active patients to keep them active. We inventory the movements and positions that irritate and don’t irritate injuries or hot spots. The patient literally writes out all his known exercises or movements that he can and cannot perform with confidence. This list gives us high quality information for being very specific in his diagnosis and designing a home care plan that aids recovery. More importantly it keeps the ball moving forward. His:

1. training continues.
2. conditioning improves.
3. emotional well-being stays high (which is especially important when injured).

Plus, the patient continues to be involved in his or her running/cycling/Crossfit/fitness/swimming/lifting/pickle ball/baseball/football/golf etc community. What’s not to like about that?

For our competitive athletes with coaches, we ask their coaches to review their AAP so training schedules can be planned accordingly. As benchmarks in a patient’s recovery are met, the AAP is repeated.

Why does the patient do the writing?

The benefit to the patient in writing out their movements is threefold. First, when writing, the patient better remembers what movements he needs to be doing and avoiding. When a provider lists them it tends to lead to non-compliance. How often have you been told what to do or what not to do, then fail to follow through accordingly because you don’t remember it?

Second, the writing acts as a subtle contract. The patient is writing out what he’s committing to. Goals are best executed when written down. Don’t believe us? Try it yourself.

The last reason is the importance of self discovery. When the injured athlete sees what he can do, he realizes how much he truly can do. When we say deadlifting or running isn’t smart or in the patient’s best interest, the reaction looks like he’s been sucker-punched with his whole world caved in. However, when he lists that he can swim, bike, row, jump rope, do pull ups, hike, or use kettlebells he starts to see there is more to fitness then his old standbys. Variety is good for us!

How can I do this?

To request a FREE AAP workheet, please contact us through this blog post or call 970-712-6059. If you’re in the Grand Junction area or are an existing patient, schedule an evaluation and consultation to have your AAP done.

Please share this with your friends who you see exercising through pain and re-injuring themselves.  Don’t let your friends stay injured and full of pain!