Today I bring you Part 2 of this blog post. If you missed Part 1, head on over here https://www.meredithhutton79.com/meredithhutton79/the-healing-power-of-gentle-movement-finding-your-flow-through-chronic-pain-part-1 to catch up. 

The Cost of Immobility: The "Deconditioning" Trap

It is tempting to stay in bed on high-pain days, and sometimes…oftentimes…this rest is necessary. There’s no question. On some of my higher pain days, where everything is overwhelming my brain and body because my pain is so high, all I can handle is laying in a quiet, dark room, that’s warm, and hope I sleep some of it away. My brain pretty much shuts off because the pain signals are so high and there are so many, that they overpower my brain and I’m not left with enough bandwidth to manage my day to day life. When it’s that bad, my capacity to function at that moment ceases. Any stimulation is just too much and I end up reduced to tears because I’m so desperate for it to stop. Happens every 2-3 weeks where I’m just so overwhelmed I need to shut everything off so that my brain can have the quiet. So while this rest is necessary, we have to keep in mind that, long-term inactivity often leads to a secondary set of problems that can be just as debilitating as the original pain:

1. Muscle Atrophy: Muscles that aren't used begin to weaken and shrink, a process known as atrophy. This physiological change occurs surprisingly quickly, with strength losses beginning after just a few days of complete rest. After my walking cast came off, my left leg was remarkably smaller and weaker than my right leg was and I had to learn to walk without the walking cast. Within months of my injury (I fell sometime in early March, 2008), I was diagnosed with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), and the nerve damage had spread to both my legs in their entirety. Then less than a year after my fall, I was rear ended by a city bus while I was stopped at a red light. The accident made my CRPS worse, caused massive muscle tearing in my neck and back, and a bulging disc in my neck, all of which impacted my ability to move. Those injuries combined caused even more muscle loss in my body due to inactivity. As time has passed (18 years in March, 2026 since my first accident), my condition has worsened, and as a result I’ve lost a lot of strength in both of my legs, neck and back, which has only added to my pain. This is because as the primary support structures of my body weaken, they become less effective at stabilizing my skeleton and joints. This shift places an excessive and unnatural strain on passive tissues like joints, tendons, and ligaments, forcing them to work harder to support your weight and simple movements. Over time, this added stress on vulnerable joint structures can generate new, mechanical pain, compounding the initial chronic condition

The effect of muscle atrophy is also a negative feedback loop: weaker muscles make movement feel more difficult and painful, which in turn leads to further avoidance of movement, which then accelerates the rate of deconditioning. Regaining lost muscle mass is a slow, difficult process, making early intervention with gentle movement essential. I wish I’d started sooner because I would have been a lot better off. With gentle movement, the goal is not to build bulk and be the strongest, but to maintain the foundational strength necessary for daily living and to protect the joints from overload. Basically, it helps keep you from getting worse. How I fight against this is by doing a consistent, mild exercise routine. The exercise video in Apple Fitness+ that I do 2-3 times a week is in the Exercise For Older Adults section of fitness videos and works on lower body strength which has helped with building back up some muscle loss as well as my balance. I feel stronger and more stable walking, and I can walk for longer than I used to be able to. When I first started exercising, I was a bit embarrassed that I was doing the exercise videos made for older adults, but I’ve gotten over that as they are just my speed. I also do the Mindful Cooldown videos which combine stretching with meditation. Being able to have a small, low impact exercise routine has changed my life. I want it to change yours too. 

2. Increased Sensitivity: Another lesson I had to learn the hard way was that the less we move, the lower our pain threshold often becomes, which leads to a state of increased sensitivity throughout our entire nervous system. When the kids were in elementary school, I was in rough shape, and many of my days while the kids were at school were spent either in bed, or laying on the couch. This impacted me greatly because the brain uses movement and all sensory input as a way to calibrate its internal danger alarm. When the body is deprived of the normal, non-threatening background noise of movement, such as shifting weight, walking, or stretching, the central nervous system has less to do. When it has less to do, it results in a heightened state of vigilance, where the pain-processing centers in the brain become hyper-focused on and more sensitive to the few remaining signals. Like I said, I would never have believed a 5-10 minutes of exercise a few days a week would be enough for my body and brain to feel the positive effects of low impact exercise and gentle movement, but I was dead wrong. You don’t have to go to the gym or come up with some complicated exercise routine, or even subscribe to any fitness apps (although if you have an iPhone or an iPad, I highly recommend Apple Fitness+ as it covers a wide range of physical capabilities/levels and has many different types of exercise you can partake in if you are physically disabled). Really, to start, all you need is 5-10 minutes and a free video on YouTube a few times a week. Don’t let these little barriers get in the way of doing what can truly benefit you and improve your quality of life. My skewed view of what I thought an exercise routine looked like, and the fact that I didn’t think doing mild, low impact exercise for 5-10 minutes a few times a week would make a difference, and that I didn’t think I was capable of having an exercise routine, really delayed me even trying. It wasn’t until I had my nervous breakdown and was trying to heal and move forward from that, that I even entertained the thought of exercising. But a friend recommended Apple Fitness+, and assured me there was something for everyone there, including disabled people. I’m glad I took her advice, because 3 years later, I have a regular exercise routine, and my physical endurance and capabilities have increased. Something I never thought that would ever happen in my lifetime. 

This neurological state of heightened sensitivities, are often tied to central sensitization, which means that stimuli that should be completely harmless, like a gentle touch, a warm or cool breeze, or a minor shift in posture, can be incorrectly interpreted as a major threat, triggering a disproportionate and overpowering pain response. This is a crucial element of the deconditioning trap: the inactivity makes the nervous system more sensitive, and the resulting increase in pain reinforces the belief that all movement is dangerous. It can be a vicious cycle, and one that is hard to navigate out of. Gentle movement, performed below the pain threshold, is an intentional strategy used to prove to this over-protective nervous system that the body is, in fact, safe. My exercise routine has improved all of this for me and my goal for 2026 is to work up to doing a 10 minute exercise video every day. I am also going to start to go for walks either at Bellhouse Park or to walk around the track at the Lion’s Field, a few times a week, which I will also work up to going daily for these walks. I think getting out in the fresh air every day will also help improve my mood and mental health. 

3. Mental Health Decline: Physical stagnation often leads to mental and emotional stagnation, creating a powerful link between chronic pain and mental health decline. How can it not when immobility severely restricts social engagement, limits participation in enjoyable activities, and often leads to an overwhelming sense of helplessness and loss of control. CRPS’s nickname is the Suicide Disease, and for good reason. Life is restricted with chronic pain and because of those restrictions, it is closely linked to increased rates of depression, anxiety, and a debilitating sense of isolation. The loss of physical capability directly impacts one's sense of self-efficacy and the belief in one's ability to succeed in specific situations. I honestly don’t know what’s worse, the physical pain, or the distress and mental health issues that often impact Pain Warriors. 

Conversely, movement is a crucial component of mental wellness. Even mild physical activity can trigger the release of mood-regulating neurotransmitters and the body's natural painkillers, endorphins. More importantly, successfully accomplishing a small, gentle movement goal, such as a two-minute movement snack, restores a sense of agency. This psychological victory over the fear of movement breaks the mental cycle of despair, replacing it with small, tangible proof that progress is possible, thereby alleviating the feelings of isolation and restoring hope. The cool thing about this is that once you start exercising and doing gentle movement on a regular basis, it doesn’t take long for you to notice the improvements start to pile up. Then one day you wake up and realize that you’ve made all this progress, physically and mentally, and it’s because these small moments of gentle movement are actually helping. This positive realization inspires and motivates you to keep it up. For me, so much so, that I began to set fitness and movement goals for myself, and I am working hard to achieve them. Remember though, setting an attainable and realistic goal is much better for your mental and physical health than trying to do too much too soon. It’s not a race, we’re playing the long game. There is no need to rush the process. 

How Regular Movement Transforms Your Life

One of the most important things that I’ve learned, is when you incorporate gentle movement into your daily rhythm, even in five-minute increments, the benefits ripple through several areas of your health:

• • • Improved Circulation: This was a game changer for me. Better blood flow is one of the most immediate and profound physical benefits of gentle movement, and it means more oxygen and vital nutrients are being delivered to healing tissues. Every gentle muscle contraction acts as a natural pump, assisting the venous return system in pushing deoxygenated blood back to the heart. Since this system lacks a powerful central organ like the heart, the action of moving muscles is essential for efficient transport. This enhanced delivery of resources is crucial for the health of muscle and joint tissues that have been starved by guarding and inactivity. 

Crucially, improved circulation also accelerates the clearance of inflammatory waste products. When muscles are tense or in spasm, a common effect of the Pain-Spasm-Pain Cycle, metabolic byproducts, such as lactic acid, accumulate locally. This build-up of irritants sends constant chemical signals to the brain that reinforce the sensation of pain. By promoting consistent, gentle movement, we help flush these irritants away more efficiently, thereby decreasing the chemical signals that feed the pain cycle and reducing localized swelling and tenderness.

• • • Endorphin Release: Movement triggers the release of endorphins, the body’s natural painkillers and mood elevators. You don’t need to have a complicated exercise routine for this to happen. Those same endorphins are still released with gentle movement and mild, low impact exercise. These powerful neurochemicals bind to opioid receptors in the brain, effectively mitigating the perception of pain. While gentle movement might not cure the chronic pain condition, this natural pain relief is often enough to take the sharp edge off. This provides a crucial, non-pharmacological window of relief, which encourages further movement and breaks the cycle of fear and inactivity. When I started my exercise routine in 2023, it only took 2-3 weeks for the positive changes to start to reveal themselves and for me to be able to say it’s become a much loved habit. The mental and physical benefits I was feeling was all the motivation I needed to keep going. With December being so busy, I hadn’t done them in a couple of weeks, and yesterday my mother-in-law and I got back to it. We like to exercise together Mondays and Thursday afternoons. Apple Fitness+ keeps track of how many times you’ve done a particular video, and today marked the 169th time that we’ve done that video. We took ourselves out for ice cream to mark our 150th time doing the video, and said we’ll do something bigger for our 200th time. 

**Just a side note, in this blog post, I’ve made it no secret that I enjoy Apple Fitness+, but want to be clear on something: I am not getting paid to endorse it. My positive experience with Apple Fitness+ are my very own independent thoughts, and I am saying them because I genuinely enjoy using the product.**

What I really loved about exercising with gentle movement regularly, was that endorphins work alongside other mood-regulating neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine, and they provide a powerful, natural lift to your emotional well-being. Chronic pain is often inextricably linked to increased rates of depression, anxiety, and a sense of hopelessness. It happens to most of us with chronic pain. So the regular, gentle chemical boost from your body’s movement offers a biological and chemical basis for emotional resilience, directly counteracting the mental fog and despair that accompanies a restricted life. This feeling of well-being helps reframe the pain experience from one of constant suffering to one of manageable variability, which is an important shift to acknowledge. 

• • • Better Sleep Quality: Physical activity, even if mild, is a key regulator of your circadian rhythm, the body's internal clock. By me engaging in purposeful movement during the day, I was sending a clear signal to my brain about when it's time to be active and when it's time to rest. This regulation helped me establish a more predictable and healthy sleep-wake cycle, by creating routines that work towards bettering my sleep habits, which is often disrupted by the constant vigilance and physical and mental discomfort I feel associated with chronic pain. I use the sleep app Rise, and it is based on the science of sleep debt, circadian rhythm, your natural energy peaks and dips in the day, when to wind down, and your melatonin window for an easier bedtime. You tell it when your ideal wake up time is, and it works backwards to calculate when your ideal bedtime should be so that you get the required amount and a good night's sleep. Your sleep data is used to calculate your body’s natural daily rhythms. It even notes when I’ve done any physical activity, I can track my mood, and I can add other data that pertains to me. After I had tracked my sleep for 5-6 weeks, I did start to notice a pattern developing around week 2.5: I was sleeping better on days I exercised or went for a walk, than on days I didn’t. Every time I miss exercising a few times in a row, it almost resets my progress backward and I have to work really hard at getting back to my daily rituals and routines. This is what is happening now. I fell off the wagon in December. So, seeing how I’ve not exercised for a few weeks, and after exercising yesterday I realized how far back that has set me. This setback has me even more committed to working towards a daily exercise routine, as well as not missing any days. I want to see how far I can go. If I can’t do a whole fitness video right away, I will tell myself that it’s ok. I will work back up to it. As my mom likes to remind me, “Rome was not built in a day, or by only one person.”

I further noticed something I was doubting to be true: That gentle movement can significantly reduce the restlessness and pain-related insomnia that often accompany chronic pain at night. It impacts all of us in some way or another, and for me, when I’m going to bed on an exercise day, my legs don't feel so restless and I’m able to fall asleep faster. It’s almost like a dog that has to run out the zoomies before it will settle down. Exercising daily tames these zoomies. Physical activity also helps manage both the physical and mental contributors to poor sleep: it reduces the baseline muscle tension that can lead to nighttime pain flares, and it manages the anxiety and mental rumination that keeps the mind racing. The gentle, purposeful fatigue generated by a movement snack promotes deeper, more restorative sleep, which is absolutely essential for tissue repair, immune function, and the brain's ability to modulate pain signals. So there’s yet another thing I would have never believed would help me, and yet here I am. I’m actually so glad to be proven wrong. I may sound silly, but it is exciting to me. Doing something positive, that I never thought I’d be able to do and that I can do just about anywhere, is exciting to me.

• • • Increased Self-Efficacy: Perhaps the greatest benefit of gentle movement is the psychological win: the restoration of self-efficacy, or the belief in one's ability to succeed in specific situations. YAY ME! For someone struggling with chronic pain, the loss of physical capability can lead to a crushing sense of helplessness. Accomplishing a small movement goal, such as completing a two-minute stretch without a flare-up, restores a vital sense of agency over your own body and potential. And it feels great. So, so great. 

This is a critical psychological victory against the fear-avoidance cycle. Each successful movement snack is a piece of tangible, real-world evidence that your body is safe and capable. It chips away at the deeply ingrained learned helplessness, replacing it with a mindset of progress and control. This shift from feeling like a victim of pain to an active manager of your health is a foundational step in healing, fostering the courage to attempt more ambitious, gentle movements over time.

....Part 3 continued tomorrow...

You don't have to manage your chronic pain journey alone. Join our community of pain warriors by signing up for my newsletter on the home page or below any blog post on my website:

https://meredithhutton79.com/meredithhutton79

As a welcome gift, I'll send you two complimentary pain-tracking pages and a 200-page household planner to help ease your mental load.

For more resources, browse my collection of chronic pain-themed trackers, planners, and journals at my shop: 

https://meredithhutton79.com/shop 

and my Chronic Pain Worksheets — To Learn And Level Up e-booklet packaged with worksheets I create and sell in bundles in my Gumroad shop: 

https://meredithhutton79.gumroad.com