When you have pain in more than one place, it can be hard to know where to start. Should you focus on your back or your knee? Will exercising one area make the other worse? Looking after more than one sore area does not have to be complicated, and a few simple principles can help you find a steady way forward.

Prioritising

Trying to fix everything at once can feel overwhelming. It often helps to start by asking:

• Which area affects your day the most?
• Which one stops you doing things you want to do?
• Are there shared triggers, like long sitting, poor sleep or stress?

You could choose one area to focus on first, while keeping everything else gently moving. Often, as one area improves, others start to feel easier too, because the whole system becomes less sensitive. It can also help to choose one simple goal, like walking to the shops comfortably or sitting through a meeting with less pain, so you can see your progress.

Simple whole-body movement

Whole-body movement helps several areas at once, without needing a separate routine for each. Walking is one of the simplest and most effective options. It gets your whole body moving, supports your joints and muscles, and helps with sleep and mood.

Some other whole-body options include:

• Swimming or water exercise, which takes some of your weight.
• Cycling, on a bike or an exercise bike.
• Gentle yoga or Pilates, adapted to suit you.

Choosing something you enjoy makes it much more likely you will keep it up.

A simple strength routine

A short routine that covers your whole body can help every sore area cope better. Something to try two or three times a week:

• Sit to stand. Rise from a chair without using your hands, then lower slowly.
• Bridges. Lie on your back with your knees bent, lift your hips, then lower slowly.
• Shoulder squeezes. Sit tall, draw your shoulder blades back and down, hold for five seconds, then relax.
• Heel raises. Rise onto your toes, pause, then lower slowly.

If you would like to follow along, VIDA has short videos of sit to stands, bridges, shoulder squeezes and heel raises you can use at your own pace.

If one exercise bothers a particular sore area, you could make it smaller, try a gentler version or leave it out for now, while keeping the rest going.

Not overdoing it

When you have pain in several places, it is easy to fall into a pattern of doing a lot on good days, then needing several days to recover. This boom and bust pattern can keep pain going.

A steadier approach tends to work better:

• Choose an amount of activity you can manage on most days, even on harder ones.
• Spread activity across the day and the week, rather than doing it all at once.
• On good days, resist the urge to catch up on everything.
• Build up gradually, adding a little at a time.
• Plan rest breaks before you need them, rather than waiting until pain builds.

Reading how your body responds

Check how your sore areas feel later that day and the following morning. A mild ache that settles by the next day is usually fine. If one area is sorer the next morning, ease back a little on whatever loads it most, while keeping the rest going.

Looking after the whole system

Sleep, stress and mood affect how sensitive your whole body feels. When you have pain in several places, these are especially worth looking after. A regular wake-up time, a calm wind-down before bed and making time for things you enjoy can all help.

Breaking up your day

Long spells in one position often affect several areas at once. Getting up and moving every half hour or so gives your whole body a break. VIDA’s Pomodoro stretches, in the top right corner, can prompt you to pause during focused work.

Keeping track

Your VIDA pain check-in can help you notice how each area is changing, and whether improvements in one seem to help the others.

What to take away

• Choose one area to focus on first, while keeping everything else gently moving.
• Whole-body movement, like walking, helps several areas at once.
• A short whole-body strength routine helps every area cope better.
• Avoid the boom and bust pattern by keeping activity steady.
• Look after sleep, stress and mood, as they affect your whole system.

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