A Series on Pacing: Part 1- Why “Use Pain As Your Guide” Isn’t Always Helpful
Have you ever been told to “use pain as your guide” when doing an activity or exercise?
It sounds like reasonable advice. After all, pain is our body’s way of protecting us from harm.
But if you’ve been living with fibromyalgia or chronic pain, your body’s warning system can become more sensitive and overprotective. That means using pain as your guide isn’t always as helpful as it sounds.
This is where pacing comes in.
What Is Pacing?
Pacing is about finding that sweet spot: not too much and not too little. It’s the middle ground that helps you stay active without overwhelming an already sensitive nervous system.
When pain is your only guide, it can be difficult to know how much activity is “just right.” As a result, it’s easy to get caught in one of two common patterns.
The first is called the boom-bust cycle. On a good day, you feel better than usual, so you catch up on housework, go for a longer walk, and tackle that to-do list. Then the next day, you’re dealing with a pain flare-up that can take days to settle.
The second common pattern is often called the avoidance cycle. On a more difficult day, pain or fear of making things worse may lead you to avoid activity altogether. Over time, this can reduce your strength, stamina, and overall tolerance for activity.
Do either of these patterns sound familiar?
For many people with chronic pain, these cycles can feel incredibly frustrating. It’s important to remember that these patterns are very common and are natural responses to pain. But over time, they can actually make it harder to build confidence and tolerance for activity.
Pacing offers another approach.
What Does Pacing Look Like?
Instead of waiting for pain to tell you when to stop, try using time, distance, or repetitions as your guide. Here are a couple of examples.
Imagine you’re having a good day, so you decide to catch up on housework. You vacuum the whole house, clean the bathrooms, and do the laundry. The next day you’re sore and exhausted, so you don’t do any housework at all.
Or maybe you’re trying to get back into the habit of walking. Because you’re feeling better than usual, you keep walking until your pain tells you it’s time to turn around. By the time you get home, you’re quite sore. The next day, you skip your walk altogether because your pain has flared up.
In both examples, pain is deciding how much activity you do.
On a good day, you do more because you’re feeling better. On a difficult day, you do much less because your pain has increased. It’s easy to see how this pattern can repeat itself.
Pacing offers a different approach. Rather than letting pain decide how much you do each day, choose an amount of activity ahead of time and use time, distance, or repetitions as your guide. This helps reduce the temptation to overdo it on good days or underdo it on more difficult ones.
More Ways to Pace Your Activities
Pacing looks a little different for everyone, but here are a few more ideas that can help:
Break larger tasks into smaller, more manageable steps
Use a timer so you don’t accidentally do too much or too little
Change positions regularly instead of staying in one posture for a long time
Take short, planned breaks before pain becomes overwhelming
Prioritize the activities that matter most to you
Plan ahead so your energy is spread more evenly throughout the day
Pacing isn’t about doing less forever or avoiding activity. It’s about finding that “sweet spot”: not too much and not too little, so you can stay active consistently and gradually build from there.
But how do you know what that starting point should be?
In my next post, I’ll explain how to find your baseline so you know where to start.