I’m currently working with a patient who has been suffering with chronic pain in the right hip for three years. She has tried everything to stop the pain. Well, almost everything.

After a careful and full assessment, we have concluded her hip pain is actually caused by a problem in her left foot, and the pain is slowly but surely starting to ease now we are dealing with the problem in her foot. As her pain eases, she can function better, move more and get on with doing the things she enjoys doing.

So, chronic pain at one site in the body caused by another part of the body not working or moving correctly. I see this quite a lot in clinic; patients assume the site of the pain is the location of the problem. Whilst this is true a majority of the time, it’s not always the case. And when I find the pain is what we call referred pain, it’s often as a result of the patient not moving properly. Moving dysfunctionally.

This dysfunction can be as a result of an old injury or some weakness somewhere.

I often go on in these articles about you all moving more. As well as moving more, you should also try to move correctly. Anyone working in the fitness industry will tell you the latest movement in our little world is functional exercise; exercise that recreates the body’s natural movement patterns. For me, functional exercise should be different for everyone, as we all have different functions to perform in our daily lives. However, the movements are pretty much all the same, whoever we are.

So how do you get in to these functional movements? Many gyms now promote functional exercise and classes.

NRGym in Worth Way, Keighley, in particular extols the virtues of this type of work. As well as working with members to encourage correct movement and posture, it reiterates this in the very popular classes it operates. The most important thing to do, though, is move, and move in a way you are meant to move. The more you do it, the more your body will work as it should. If it hurts to move, get it checked out.

Many times it’s a long-term issue you need to sort, but once you’re on that road to moving with purpose, you’ll soon be moving better, moving more and feeling and looking better.