When your physio mentions pacing, what exactly does that mean?
Pacing is essentially about gradually increasing (or reducing) your activity level in a way that’s manageable, whether you’re dealing with a chronic condition or recovering from an acute injury. Pacing can be applied to all kinds of activities – it may be an exercise activity such as walking or running, or it could be a work or home activity eg. time at the computer or even housework.
We break it down into three key steps: Pacing, Planning, and Prioritizing.
Planning
Step 1: choose your activity: choose an activity that you enjoy, as these will often be the one that you stick with.
Step 2: establish your baseline: this is the amount of the activity you can perform without flaring up symptoms.
Step 3: plan for when, where and how you will do the activity: you can discuss with your physio how to best fit this activity into your daily life.
Step 4: planning to improve bit by bit: a great way to do this is to keep a diary or activity tracker.
Step 5: staying on track: being able to tick off achievements is a great way to stay on track.
Pacing
First we need to find our baseline. Estimate about how much of the activity you can perform without flaring up symptoms. Trial this amount and if it doesn’t flare up symptoms then set this as your starting point. If symptoms do flare up then drop the amount by 20% and try again. As a general rule, we should increase our activity level by 10% each week and only continue to increase the load by a further 10% the subsequent week if this increase has not flared up symptoms.
Prioritising
As we are gradually increasing the activity load, we must consider other factors which may be adding to your total load. This may include work, leisure activities or even household chores. An activity tracker can help to identify activities that may be tipping you over the edge into pain.
If your symptoms are fluctuating seemingly without cause or are unremitting, more factors that impact recovery may need to be considered. These might be incidental activity, nutrition, stress and even sleep. Speak to your physio about these concerns as we can refer to appropriate health professionals to seek further clarity.
For a printable and practical guide to pacing, click here:
If you like help with setting up appropriate pacing for your recovery, please contact the Total Physiotherapy team on 02 9907 0321.
