Does the Body Keeps Score?

For most aches and pains, the usual approaches can work very well.

Exercise can help build strength. Stretching can improve mobility. Massage can reduce muscle tension. Physical therapy can help restore movement, and chiropractic care can be useful for many people.

But what happens when those approaches aren’t enough?

At Living Touch Therapeutics, we specialize in helping people who have been dealing with pain for more than six months and have already seen three or more providers without getting the relief they were looking for.

One of the ways we approach these difficult cases is through something called Injury Recall Technique, or IRT.

Let me tell you about one client who changed the way I thought about chronic pain.

She came to my office after being involved in back-to-back car accidents. Her left shoulder was numb, with the sensation extending down toward her hand. She also had a strange sensation around her pelvis that she described as feeling like jagged marbles rubbing together when she moved.

She had already tried different approaches without getting the result she wanted.

I began working with her using Adhesion Release Methods, looking for areas where tissue appeared restricted and where nerves might be involved. It worked. Her symptoms improved dramatically. She was about 80% better.

But something wasn’t adding up. Between sessions, some of the symptoms would return. We could make progress, but we couldn’t always maintain it.

Then I began learning about IRT.

Instead of only asking, “Where does it hurt?”, I started asking another question:

“Could something that happened in the past still be influencing the way this person’s nervous system is responding today?”

We tested an old injury site and performed the IRT process.

I could feel a change in the tissue response.

We then addressed another area around her sacrum. She experienced another noticeable change, including the disappearance of the crunching sensation she had described.

That experience made me step back and ask a bigger question.

Do Our Muscles Keep Score?

Not literally. Our muscles don’t have a memory like a computer storing a file. But our nervous system does learn. When you injure yourself, your body immediately begins adapting.

If you sprain your ankle, you may stop putting weight on it. You may change the way you walk. You may tighten certain muscles and avoid certain movements.

Those changes can be helpful. They protect you while you heal.

But what happens after the injury heals?

Does your nervous system automatically return to exactly the way it moved before?

Sometimes it may. But the nervous system is designed to adapt to the information it receives, and movement patterns can be learned and changed over time.

That raises an interesting possibility:

Could an old injury still be influencing the way we move today?

Your Nervous System Is Always Listening

Every time you move, your nervous system is receiving information from your body.

Your muscles contain sensory receptors that provide information about muscle length and movement. Your joints and surrounding tissues provide information about position and pressure. Your inner ear provides information about balance and head movement. Your eyes provide information about where you are in your environment.

Your brain brings all of this information together to help coordinate movement.

So when an injury occurs, the information coming into the nervous system can change.

Your body adapts.

You may move differently.

You may protect one side.

You may avoid certain positions.

You may use other muscles to compensate.

And sometimes the original pain goes away while the movement strategy remains.

This Is Where IRT Comes In

IRT is an approach that looks at whether an old injury may be associated with a change in neuromuscular response.

Rather than assuming an old injury is responsible for someone’s current pain, we can test.

We look at movement or muscle response.

We identify a potential injury-related area.

We apply the technique.

Then we test again.

Test. Treat. Retest.

The goal is to see whether there is a meaningful change.

This is especially interesting when someone has already tried multiple approaches and still doesn’t understand why their problem continues.

And perhaps some of those things helped—but the problem never completely resolved.

That doesn’t mean those treatments were wrong.

It may simply mean there is another piece of the puzzle worth investigating.

Your History May Matter More Than You Think

When someone comes into our office with chronic pain, I don’t just want to know where it hurts today. I want to know what happened before it started. Have you ever injured that area?

Have you had a major fall? A car accident? A surgery? A sports injury? A significant impact?Even an injury from decades ago can be worth knowing about. We can’t assume that an old injury is causing a current problem.

But we can ask the question.

And we can test.

That is what makes the approach interesting to me.

We’re not simply chasing pain.

We’re trying to understand why the body is responding the way it is.

The Question Worth Asking

If you’ve had pain for months or years and you’ve already tried multiple approaches without getting the answer you were looking for, there may be more to investigate.

The question isn’t simply:

“Where does it hurt?”

It may also be:

“What happened to you before this started?”

Because sometimes the body isn’t just responding to what is happening today.

It may also be responding to what it learned from something that happened years ago.

So, do our muscles keep score?

Maybe not literally.

But our nervous system remembers how to adapt.

And sometimes, understanding those adaptations can give us another place to look for answers.