Movement for Chronic Pain Management and Improved Function
Chronic pain can change the way a person lives. Activities that once seemed simple—walking through the grocery store, exercising, gardening, playing with grandchildren, or getting out of bed—may become increasingly difficult. Understandably, many people respond to pain by moving less. Unfortunately, over time, avoiding movement can contribute to weakness, stiffness, reduced endurance, and even greater limitations in daily function.
At WellHealthe, a direct primary care practice serving the Coachella Valley in Southern California, we approach chronic pain through the principles of lifestyle medicine. Rather than focusing only on temporarily reducing symptoms, we look for ways to improve function, address contributing factors, and help patients remain active and independent.
Movement is one of the most important tools available for accomplishing these goals.
Chronic Pain and the Cycle of Inactivity
Pain normally serves an important purpose: it alerts us to injury or potential harm. Chronic pain is more complicated. When pain persists for months or years, the relationship between pain, tissue damage, and movement can become less straightforward.
A common response is to avoid activities that hurt. In the short term, this may seem reasonable. Over longer periods, however, inactivity can result in decreased muscle strength, reduced cardiovascular fitness, joint stiffness, loss of mobility, and lower confidence in the body’s ability to move.
This can create a cycle:
Pain → less movement → weakness and stiffness → reduced function → more difficulty moving → more pain and disability.
Breaking this cycle does not necessarily require intense exercise. In many cases, it begins with simply finding safe and tolerable ways to move again.
The World Health Organization recommends exercise programs as part of the management of chronic primary low back pain and emphasizes an individualized, person-centered approach that considers physical, psychological, and social contributors to pain.
Movement Is About Function, Not Just Exercise
When people hear that they need to exercise, they may imagine running, lifting heavy weights, or completing difficult workouts. For someone experiencing chronic pain, those expectations can make physical activity feel unrealistic.
A better starting point is to think about movement rather than exercise.
Movement might include walking for five or ten minutes, stretching in the morning, gardening, swimming, performing chair exercises, practicing yoga or tai chi, using resistance bands, or completing basic strength exercises.
The initial goal is not athletic performance. The goal is to gradually increase what the body can comfortably do.
Over time, appropriate physical activity can improve strength, mobility, balance, cardiovascular fitness, and confidence. For people with arthritis, regular physical activity can also decrease pain and improve function. Physical activity provides additional benefits including improved sleep, better mental health, healthier weight management, and reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.
These benefits make physical activity particularly important in disease prevention and chronic disease management.
Start Low and Progress Slowly
One of the biggest mistakes people with chronic pain make is doing too much on a good day.
A person may feel better, become highly active, experience increased symptoms afterward, and then avoid activity for several days. This “boom-and-bust” pattern makes it difficult to develop consistent physical capacity.
Instead, movement should usually begin at a level that feels manageable and progress gradually.
Someone who has been sedentary because of chronic knee or back pain, for example, may initially tolerate only a five-minute walk. That is still meaningful activity. Once five minutes can be completed consistently, the duration can gradually increase.
The same principle applies to strength training. Simple movements using body weight, resistance bands, light weights, or machines can be introduced according to an individual’s abilities.
Federal physical activity recommendations encourage adults who are able—including those with chronic health conditions—to work toward at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity each week along with muscle-strengthening activity at least two days per week. However, these recommendations are goals, not prerequisites for receiving benefits. Some physical activity is better than none.
For chronic pain management, consistency is often more important than intensity.
Strength Matters for Long-Term Independence
Cardiovascular exercise receives considerable attention, but resistance training becomes increasingly important as we age.
Muscles support joints, stabilize the body, help maintain balance, and make everyday activities easier. When pain causes prolonged inactivity, loss of strength can make activities such as climbing stairs, carrying groceries, getting out of a chair, or walking longer distances increasingly difficult.
Progressive resistance exercise can help rebuild this capacity.
For some patients, this may mean beginning with sit-to-stand exercises from a chair. Others may progress to resistance bands, machines, dumbbells, or more traditional strength training.
The appropriate exercise depends on the individual’s medical conditions, pain pattern, previous activity level, and goals.
Chronic Pain Requires More Than One Solution
Movement is powerful, but chronic pain should rarely be viewed through a single lens.
Sleep, stress, nutrition, body composition, mental health, social connection, smoking, medical conditions, medications, and physical activity can all influence the experience of chronic pain.
This is where lifestyle medicine can be particularly valuable.
At WellHealthe, we use the six pillars of health—nutrition, physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, positive social connection, and avoidance of risky substances—to examine health more comprehensively.
Consider sleep, for example. Poor sleep can increase pain sensitivity, while pain can make it difficult to sleep. Stress can increase muscle tension and influence pain perception. Excess body weight may increase mechanical stress on weight-bearing joints. Smoking is associated with numerous negative health outcomes and may complicate recovery.
Addressing several of these factors together can create an environment that supports better function and long-term health.
When Pain Should Be Evaluated Before Exercising
Movement is beneficial for many chronic pain conditions, but not every type of pain should simply be “pushed through.”
New or unexplained pain, significant weakness, progressive numbness, loss of bowel or bladder control, fever, unexplained weight loss, significant trauma, severe nighttime pain, or rapidly worsening symptoms deserve medical evaluation.
The goal is to distinguish between pain that can safely be managed with progressive activity and symptoms that may indicate an underlying condition requiring further evaluation.
This is one advantage of direct primary care. Instead of treating chronic pain as an isolated complaint, the primary care relationship allows the provider and patient to evaluate the broader health picture, follow symptoms over time, coordinate physical therapy or specialty care when appropriate, and adjust the treatment plan as function improves.
Redefining Success in Chronic Pain Management
For someone living with chronic pain, success does not always mean achieving a pain score of zero.
A better question may be: What are you able to do today that pain prevented you from doing before?
Perhaps you can walk for 20 minutes instead of five. Maybe you can play with your grandchildren, return to gardening, travel more comfortably, sleep better, or get out of a chair without assistance.
These improvements matter.
Function is one of the most meaningful measures of progress because it reflects a person’s ability to participate in life.
Building a More Active Coachella Valley
Living in the Coachella Valley provides many opportunities to incorporate movement into daily life, from walking and hiking to swimming, resistance training, golf, pickleball, and community fitness programs. During our hottest months, indoor exercise, early-morning activity, and appropriate hydration become particularly important.
You do not need to become an athlete to benefit from movement. You simply need to start at a level appropriate for you and build from there.
At WellHealthe, our approach to direct primary care and lifestyle medicine in the Coachella Valley focuses on helping patients understand the root causes and contributing factors behind their health concerns. Physical activity is an essential component of the six pillars of health and plays an important role in disease prevention, chronic disease management, healthy aging, and maintaining independence.
When chronic pain has caused you to stop moving, the solution is not always more rest. Sometimes the path toward better function begins with the right kind of movement—performed safely, consistently, and one step at a time.
References
World Health Organization. WHO Guideline for Non-Surgical Management of Chronic Primary Low Back Pain in Adults in Primary and Community Care Settings. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2023.
World Health Organization. Low Back Pain. WHO Fact Sheet. 2023.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Chronic Conditions & Disabilities Activity. National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Updated December 2025.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. What You Can Do to Meet Physical Activity Recommendations. Physical Activity Basics. Updated December 2025.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. 2nd ed. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; 2018.
World Health Organization. WHO Guidelines on Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2020.