🧠 Your Brain on Pain

Hey y’all!

It’s me, Dr. Kelly—your friendly neighborhood Double Board-Certified Pelvic PT—in the house with a deep dive into the science of PAIN (cue dramatic music 🎬).

Today, we’re breaking down:

✅ What pain actually is
✅ What happens to your brain and nerves when pain keeps showing up
✅ And 3 simple things you can do TODAY to help your body feel and move better

Ready? Let’s do this.

🔍 What is Pain, Anyway?

According to the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP), pain is:

“An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, actual or potential tissue damage.”

Translation?
Pain is what we feel when something hurts—but also what we might feel when our brain thinks something could hurt us…and the amount of pain that we feel, depends directly on how recently, or frequently, we’ve experienced pain in the past.

That means pain can be a real sensation from an injury or a protective signal from our brain that’s trying to keep us safe—even if there’s no tissue damage. Pain isn’t “in your head,” but your brain definitely has a say in how intense and how often you feel it.

Let’s break it down in real-people terms.

🧠 Nerves 101 (Don't Worry, This is the Fun Part)

Your body has:

• Bones, which give us shape and structure, so that we’re not a jellyfish

• Muscles, which move your bones

• Nerves, which tell your brain where everything is, what’s going on, and if something feels good, bad, or neutral, and YES, can give the sensation for pain, as well as other sensations of touch, movement and hot and cold.

Let’s say you close your eyes—your nerves can still tell whether your hand is palm up or palm down. That’s your body’s built-in GPS system. Cool, right?

Some nerves are responsible for movement, and some are responsible for sensation like touch, temperature, and—you guessed it—pain.

Now here’s where it gets interesting...

🔥 Sensitization: When Your Nerves Start to Overreact

All nerves have a baseline “resting” level. When something goes above that level, you feel a sensation. If it crosses a certain threshold—you feel pain.

👉 Example:
If I touch your arm gently, your nerves register touch—no pain.
If I pinch your arm hard? Your nerves shout “OW!” and you feel pain.

But here's the kicker:
If I keep pinching that same spot again and again, your nerves stop calming down fully between pinches. Instead, they stay closer and closer to that pain threshold.

Eventually, even a light touch might feel painful.
That’s called nerve sensitization, and it’s a BIG deal in chronic pain.

That’s also why Grandpa's knees really could predict a storm coming. It wasn’t a joke—his nerves were more sensitive and reactive. Wild, right?

💥 What Happens to Your Muscles When You're in Pain?

When your body senses pain, your brain tries to help by protecting you. It says,

“Uh-oh, that area’s hurting. Let’s turn down the signal so it can rest.”

Sounds helpful, but... your brain often turns down the wrong signals—like the ones that tell you where your body is in space (a.k.a. proprioception). And at the same time, it cranks up the pain signals.

So now your brain isn’t getting good information from the injured area and it’s feeling more pain. Not ideal.

Make sense, awesome!

Unclear?  Check out these cool graphics I made, before you read on: 

🌀 Pain Results in Pain-Spasm and/or Pain-Inhibition 

When this happens, muscles near the painful spot react in one of two ways:

• Spasm (tightening up like a protective shield)

• Inhibition (shutting down and going offline)

Here are some common examples:

• Low back/pelvic/hip pain:
  🔒 Spasm: Pelvic floor, hip flexors
  🔕 Inhibition: Deep abs, glutes, back stabilizers

• Knee pain:
  🔒 Spasm: Hamstrings, superficial hip muscles
  🔕 Inhibition: Inner quads, glutes, ankle stabilizers

• Shoulder pain:
  🔒 Spasm: Upper traps, pecs
  🔕 Inhibition: Shoulder blade stabilizers

Now, here's the important part:

Even if the original injury calms down, these imbalances stick around—making it more likely for your pain to return AND can even cause new problems if they’re not addressed.

⚙️ Why Rest Alone Doesn’t Work

Let’s say you pull a muscle and rest for a week. Sure, the inflammation might go down—but the movement patterns your brain adapted? They’re still there.

Without retraining those patterns, you’re more likely to reinjure yourself or stay stuck in the pain cycle.

This is where physical therapy shines:
We assess which muscles are asleep (👋 hi, glutes), which are overactive (lookin’ at you, traps), and give you targeted exercises to restore balance. Not just to fix the pain, but to keep it from coming back.

You now have a Pelvic Floored Certificate in Pain Science, Congratulations!  But let’s go one step further, and give you 3 simple things you can do TODAY to break this pain cycle.

✅ 3 Simple Things You Can Do TODAY to Break the Pain Cycle

1. Understand the Science of Pain

Check this off—✔️ you just did it! You now know more about pain neuroscience than most people ever will. Go you!

2. Manage Other Stressors

Pain loves company—and in many case, that company is stress.

Stress makes it harder for your brain to relearn safe, healthy movement. You can’t eliminate all stress, but try these basics:

• 💧 Drink water

• 🥚 Eat at least 60g of protein and 30g of fiber daily

• 💤 Sleep 7+ hours and wake up feeling rested

• 🌞 Get outside and move in a way that feels GOOD for at least 30 mins

Other factors to consider (even if they're tricky to change):

• Are you happy at home?

• Are you fulfilled at work?

• Are your basic needs—food, housing, safety—being met?

All of this matters. If you are stressed for multiple reasons, it might take you longer to manage your pain.  But as long as you can identify that, and understand WHY your pain is taking longer to resolve than Sally down the street, it will actually help you cope and improve better in the long run.

3. Reconnect with Your Body Through Movement

Wake up those sleepy muscles. Stretch the tight ones. Then—strengthen everything.

You don’t need to spend hours in the gym. 10–15 minutes a day of smart, targeted exercises can reconnect your brain and body, calm down pain signals, and restore natural movement patterns.

Pelvic Floored Programs are designed to guide you through this step, or check in with a qualified local PT to get started.  Check back around this blog, or my fun, free Instagram page for free exercises and concrete ideas of where to start for different ailments.  Rumour on the street is that Dr. Kelly’s Treasure Chest is getting filled by the bucketful.

🙌 You’re Not Broken. You’re Just a Human with a Nervous System.

Pain is real. But it’s also complex, changeable, and treatable.
And you’re already taking the first step by learning more about it.

Let’s get you back to doing what you love—without fear, and without pain holding the mic.

You got this. 🧠💪

XOXO

Dr. Kelly 💋

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📚 It’s True! You Can Look It Up!  Check out These References!!!

Eiger B, Rathleff MS, Ickmans K, Rheel E, Straszek CL. Keeping It Simple—Pain Science Education for Patients with Chronic Pain Referred to Community-Based Rehabilitation: Translation, Adaptation, and Clinical Feasibility Testing of PNE4Adults. Journal of Clinical Medicine. 2025; 14(3):771. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm14030771

Louw A, Schuemann T, Zimney K, Puentedura EJ. Pain Neuroscience Education for Acute Pain. Int J Sports Phys Ther. 2024 Jun 2;19(6):758-767. doi: 10.26603/001c.118179. PMID: 38835986; PMCID: PMC11144658.  Read it here

Ringkamp M, et al. The revised International Association for the Study of Pain definition of pain: concepts, challenges, and compromises. Pain. 2020 Sep 1;161(9):1976-1982. doi:10.1097/j.pain.0000000000001939. PMID: 32694387; PMCID: PMC7680716  Read it here

Moseley G et al, Teaching Patients About Pain: The Emergence of Pain Science Education, its Learning Frameworks and Delivery Strategies.  The Journal of Pain, Volume 25, Issue 5, 104425