Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

In a few of my injuries the pain was so severe that it caused my muscles to be in a constant state of spasm, causing inflammation and knotting. It's my understanding that this can restrict blood flow to the area which slows healing. If the inflammation is bad/big enough it'll irritate other things in the area. I was also told that the reduction of range of motion due to pain slows the rehabilitation process in certain injuries. For example, if you just stopped using your right arm for six weeks. It would atrophy and be weak and sore when you started using it again.

Of course what you say is true and important and common sense needs to be applied to each individual situation. Just because HappyTrash is on enough meds to be pain free doesn't mean it's OK for him to do squats or ride a bike until his knee heals.

On my recent fractured heel bone I was on enough dope to be pain free, but I didn't dare put my foot on the ground until enough weeks had passed to allow the bone to heal. During those weeks I was able to do range of motion exercises which prevented damage to my Achilles tendon which can occur due to immobility.

Pain is definitely mother natures way of preventing you from making an injury worse . But pain doesn't facilitate the healing process.