Pain Free Tips
Practical, evidence-based prevention tips from the team at Daisy Hill Physiotherapy.
PATIENT GUIDE
Most pain is preventable. Here is how.
The conditions we treat most often — back pain, neck pain, shoulder impingement, tendinopathies, lower-limb overuse — all share a small handful of root causes: too much load too quickly, too little load for too long, poor sleep, weak postural muscles, repeated tiny errors of posture or technique. This guide covers the daily habits that protect against the most common injuries.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
If you only read this much …
SECTION 01
Manage load — the single biggest factor
Most overuse injuries come from too much load, too quickly. Doubled your running mileage in a week? Started a new gym program at 5 sessions a week from zero? Suddenly working from a kitchen bench for 8 hours a day instead of an office desk?
The safe progression for almost any load is roughly 10% per week. If you ran 20km last week, run no more than 22km this week. If you can deadlift 80kg, the next session is 82.5kg, not 100kg.
This applies as much to sitting as to running. Two hours of new desk work per day is a load increase your body needs time to adapt to.
SECTION 02
Sleep is the cheapest recovery tool you have
Seven to nine hours of sleep is when tissue repair, hormonal regulation and pain modulation all happen. Chronic short sleep (under 6 hours per night for weeks) consistently predicts higher injury rates, worse rehabilitation outcomes, and increased perception of pain.
If you are training hard, recovering from injury, or have a physically demanding job, treat sleep as a part of the program — not the thing that gets cut when life is busy.
SECTION 03
Move daily, vary often
The single most protective daily habit for back, neck and joint pain is 30 minutes of varied movement — walking, mobility work, light strength, anything that takes joints through full range. Variety matters more than intensity.
If you sit for work, stand and move for 2–3 minutes every hour. Walk to a colleague instead of emailing. Take stairs instead of the lift. The cumulative effect of small movements over the day is larger than the effect of one hard gym session per week.
SECTION 04
Strength train twice a week — whole body, real load
For everyone, not just athletes: two whole-body strength sessions a week protects against virtually every common musculoskeletal injury. It builds bone density (critical for women over 50), maintains muscle mass (critical for anyone over 40 or on GLP-1 medications), supports tendons and joints, and improves how you absorb daily load.
Two sessions a week of squat, hinge, push, pull and carry — with real load you have to work to lift — will do more for long-term injury prevention than any stretching routine.
SECTION 05
Pay attention to small persistent niggles
Small persistent pain in a specific spot is your body telling you something is wrong with how it is being loaded. The cost of seeing a physiotherapist when something is mildly sore is dramatically lower than the cost of waiting until it is so bad you can’t work or train.
If something has been bothering you for more than two weeks and is not steadily improving, book in. We can usually fix it in 1–3 sessions at that stage. The same problem 6 months later often needs 8–12 sessions.
SECTION 06
When to see your GP first, not us
Physiotherapy is excellent for musculoskeletal and vestibular conditions. There are presentations where you should see your GP first:
- Sudden severe headache, especially with neurological symptoms
- Numbness or weakness in arms or legs
- Loss of bladder or bowel control
- Unexplained weight loss with back pain
- Fever with joint pain
- Chest pain
- Significant trauma with severe pain
These can indicate conditions that need medical workup first. We will refer you back to your GP if we see these in clinic.
PREVENTION OR EARLY INTERVENTION
Small niggle now beats big problem later.
Two-week rule: if something has been bothering you for more than two weeks and is not improving, book in. Resolution at that stage typically takes 1–3 sessions.
COMMON QUESTIONS
Pain-prevention questions we get …
I am sore after exercise — should I see a physio?+
Normal post-exercise soreness peaks 24–48 hours after a session and resolves within 5–7 days. If soreness lasts longer than a week, is in a specific spot rather than a whole muscle group, or returns every time you load a particular movement, it is worth seeing a physio.
How much stretching should I do?+
For most musculoskeletal injury prevention, strength training matters more than stretching. Daily mobility work (5–10 minutes) is enough for most people. Stretching specifically before high-intensity sport is more about activation than flexibility.
Is sitting really “the new smoking”?+
No — that line is overstated. But prolonged static sitting (more than 2 hours without movement breaks) consistently correlates with back, neck and shoulder pain, and reduced metabolic health. The fix is movement breaks every hour, not a standing desk.
Do I need orthotics?+
For most foot pain, no — strength training the foot intrinsics and adjusting load is more effective long term. There are specific conditions (some forms of plantar fasciitis, severe flat feet, certain post-surgical cases) where orthotics help. A physiotherapy assessment will tell you which group you are in.
My posture is bad — is that causing my pain?+
“Bad” posture rarely causes pain on its own. Static posture for too long usually does. Posture variation throughout the day matters more than perfect posture at any moment. The best posture is the next one.
Daisy Hill Physiotherapy · Unit 4, 11–13 Allamanda Drive, Daisy Hill QLD 4127 · Prevention-first physiotherapy for Logan, South Brisbane and the wider catchment.
This guide is general information, not personal medical advice. If your symptoms are severe, sudden, or worrying, see your GP or call 13HEALTH (13 43 25 84). For specific physiotherapy questions, book an appointment.
