Staying Active with Pain: Activity Pacing

How pain impacts physical activity

Cancer pain can make it difficult to be as active as you want to be. With pain people naturally spend more time resting. Sometimes people save most of their physical activity only for “good days.” Afterwards they pay the price with a pain flare that leaves them needing to rest and recover for days and feeling sad and helpless. As a person rests for a long time, their muscles become weak, it becomes harder to be active, and pain worsens.

This experience is very discouraging, and it is very common. Psychologists call this the pain cycle. The good news is that there are tools you can learn to take control and break the pain cycle.

Activity pacing:

A tool that has been proven to break the pain cycle and help get you back to activities that are important in your life.

In a nutshell, this tool focuses on doing realistic physical activities for short periods of time, taking scheduled rest breaks, and slowly increasing your activity level up over weeks to months. Taking pain medicines before the activity can be very helpful. Over time this technique can help you build up your strength, endurance, and help you do more of the activities that matter to you. Many people also notice their pain feeling better, and feeling happier doing the things that they love.

The Pain Cycle

Breaking the Pain Cycle

Pain

Resting

Sadness

Weakness

Avoiding activities

Activity Pacing

Start easy
Slowly increase amount
Take regular breaks

Reduced Pain

Safe, manageable physical activity

resting

Reduced

Sadness

Stronger muscles

weakness

Doing

avoiding activities

Start by choosing an activity that is meaningful to you. It should be something important to you, something you enjoy, and something realistic. People often choose something that fits into their everyday life like light housework or home repairs, cooking, gardening, or walking. Or they chose an activity that has a social aspect to it – like going out to dinner with friends, shopping, or going to a sporting event.

Whatever the activity, start with baby steps. If your goal involves walking, start with a distance or amount of time you know that you can do comfortably. People try to start with what they used to before they were sick. This usually isn’t a good idea. Try to start with something more realistic. Overdoing it at the beginning can make your pain flare up, discourage you, and get you stuck back in the pain cycle.

If you know that an activity always causes pain, it can help to take your short-acting opioid (your “breakthrough” pain medicine) about 30 minutes ahead of time. Over-the-counter pain medicines like ibuprofen (Advil) or acetaminophen (Tylenol) can also help, if your care team has said that these are safe for you. Using pain medicines wisely is an important part of building strength and endurance.

Here is an overview to the steps of activity pacing:

Tips to help you succeed with activity pacing:

Want to learn more?

Check out these resources:

Video: Activity Pacing

Why Goals Matter

Staying Active with Pain: Activity Pacing

How pain impacts physical activity

Activity pacing:

The Pain Cycle

Breaking the Pain Cycle

Pick and activity goal

Try it for a short time

Slowly work your way up

Pay attention to how you feel

Take regular rest breaks

Take your pain medications to help

Here is an overview to the steps of activity pacing:

Tips to help you succeed with activity pacing:

If fear is holding you back, ask for help

Remember that setbacks and flare-ups in pain are normal

Save energy for activities you value

Alternate hard tasks with easier tasks

Want to learn more?

Check out these resources: