How to Read Your Body's Data: The Real Signs of Progress (It's Not What You Think)
You've been tracking your movement experiments for two weeks. Your pain scores are all over the place. Some days you feel worse than when you started. You're wondering if you should quit.
Hold on.
What you're seeing might actually be progress, not failure. But you need to know how to read the data correctly.
After 15+ years in movement and pain work, plus my own 8-year journey through expensive trial and error, I've learned that real healing rarely looks like a neat downward slope on a pain chart. It's messier, more complex, and often requires a different kind of detective work to recognize.
Let me show you how to read your body's data like a pro, so you don't abandon something that's actually working, or waste months on something that isn't.
The Pendulum Effect: Why Your Body Swings Before It Settles
Here's what no one tells you about making real postural and movement changes: your body often has to swing between extremes before it finds balance.
My pendulum story:
After 8 years of flexion focused exercises that made me more kyphotic, I had to swing completely the other way with Functional Patterns' thoracic extension based approach. For months, my data looked chaotic. Some days I felt more extended than ever, other days I felt like I was reverting to old patterns.
My tracking journal looked like a mess. Pain bouncing between 3s and 7s. Movement quality fluctuating wildly. Some exercises feeling great one day, terrible the next.
But what was actually happening was my body was learning to find a new center point between my old compressed patterns and the new decompressed positions. The pendulum had to swing before it could settle.
What this looks like in your data:
Pain levels that seem to randomly fluctuate
Some days feeling amazing, others feeling terrible
Movement patterns that feel unstable or "different"
Exercises that challenge you differently from day to day
The key insight: This pendulum effect is often a sign that real change is happening. Your body is exploring new ranges, new patterns, new possibilities. It just hasn't found its new equilibrium yet.
But - and this is crucial - you should still be seeing some positive trends within this chaos.
What Real Progress Actually Looks Like
Forget what you think progress should look like. Here's what it actually looks like when your body is changing:
1. Increased Body Awareness (Even If It Feels "Worse")
What people often say: "I'm noticing so many things wrong with my body now. I think I'm getting worse."
What's really happening: Your nervous system is waking up. You're developing the sensory awareness needed to make real changes.
In your tracking data, this shows up as:
More detailed descriptions of sensations in your notes section
Ability to identify exactly where and when pain occurs
Noticing movement patterns you were previously unconscious of
Feeling muscles or areas you've never felt before
This is progress. You can't change what you can't feel.
2. Everyday Movements Getting Incrementally Easier
What to track: Not just pain levels, but functional ease.
Look for:
Walking up stairs doesn't require the same mental preparation
Getting out of bed feels less like a production
Reaching for something overhead happens without strategizing first
Standing up from teaching doesn't require the same recovery ritual
What this looks like in your data:
Functional improvement notes even when pain scores stay the same
Fewer "avoidance" behaviors recorded
Increased activity tolerance (can stand/walk/move longer before fatigue)
3. Better Days Becoming More Frequent
Not: Pain going from 8 to 0 in a straight line Instead: Pain cycling between 4-7 instead of 6-9, with more 4s over time
What to track:
How often you have "good" vs "rough" days
Whether your rough days are less rough than they used to be
If your good days are becoming your new normal
4. Exercise Tolerance Improving (Even If Pain Fluctuates)
What this looks like:
Exercises that used to exhaust you now feel manageable
You can do the same workout with less recovery time needed
Form improvements even when the exercise still challenges you
Ability to progress to harder variations, even gradually
The "Time vs. Progress" Balance: When to Be Patient vs. When to Pivot
This is the million-dollar question: How do you balance "change takes time" with "I should be seeing some progress"?
Here's my framework:
Give It Time When You See:
Pendulum swings with positive trends: Some rough days mixed with improvements in any area
Increased awareness: You're noticing things you never felt before
Functional gains: Daily activities getting easier, even if pain persists
Exercise progression: Getting stronger, more flexible, or better form over time
Consider Pivoting When You See:
Consistent decline: Every measure getting worse over 6+ weeks
No positive trends anywhere: Not just pain, but also function, awareness, or capacity
New problems without any benefits: Developing pain in new areas with no improvements to balance it
The sweet spot: You should see SOME positive movement in your data within 4-6 weeks, even if it's not in the area you most want to improve.
Red Flags That Override the "Give It Time" Rule
Sometimes the "trust the process" advice is wrong. Here are the data patterns that should make you reconsider your approach, regardless of how much time you've invested:
Red Flag #1: Consistent Functional Decline
What this looks like in your data:
Daily activities getting harder week after week
Exercise tolerance decreasing over time
Movement quality consistently rated as "worse" or "stiff"
Red Flag #2: New Pain Without Any Improvements
What to track:
Pain appearing in areas that weren't previously problematic
Expanding list of "what to avoid" without any expanding list of "what feels good"
More limitations developing without any limitations resolving
Red Flag #3: Zero Positive Trends After 6 Weeks
The data speaks clearly when:
Every metric either stays the same or gets worse
No improvements in pain, function, awareness, or capacity
Your notes show only frustration and struggle, never moments of progress
Reading Your Data Like a Detective: The 4-Week Review
Every 4 weeks, step back and analyze your data like a detective looking for patterns:
Week 1-2: The Baseline
Expect chaos and fluctuation
Look for increased awareness (even if uncomfortable)
Don't make any major decisions yet
Week 3-4: The Pattern Emergence
Start looking for trends across categories
Identify your best and worst days - what made them different?
Notice if any aspect of your experience is improving
Week 5-6: The Decision Point
Ask yourself:
Is ANY area of my experience better than when I started?
Are my rough days less rough than they used to be?
Do I feel more in control of my body, even if it's not perfect?
If yes to any of these: You're likely in a productive pendulum phase. Keep going. If no to all of these: Time to consider modifications or a different approach.
Case Study: Reading Real Progress in Messy Data
Let me show you what real progress looked like in my own tracking during my Functional Patterns transition:
Week 1-2: Pain levels erratic (3-8 daily), movement felt "weird," some exercises caused new sensations I'd never felt.
Week 3-4: Still erratic pain (4-7), but I was noticing my ribcage position for the first time ever. Walking felt different - not necessarily better, just different.
Week 5-6: Pain range narrowed (4-6), and I realized I was sleeping through the night more often. Still felt uncoordinated, but less compressed.
Month 2: The big breakthrough - I walked a full mile without hip-to-neck pain ping-pong. Pain levels were still fluctuating, but that one functional win told me everything.
What the data detective would see: Increased body awareness, functional improvements, and a narrowing range of pain despite ongoing fluctuations. Classic signs of productive change.
Your Turn: Becoming Your Own Data Detective
Here's your action plan for reading your own tracking data:
Daily: Focus on Awareness, Not Outcomes
Note what you're feeling, even if it's "different" or "weird"
Track function alongside pain
Record exercise tolerance and movement quality
Weekly: Look for Trends, Not Perfection
Are your rough days less rough?
Are any daily activities getting easier?
Do you feel more in control of your movement?
Monthly: Make Strategic Decisions
Is there positive movement in ANY category?
Are you developing better body awareness?
Do the functional improvements outweigh the continued challenges?
The Bottom Line: Progress Isn't Always Pretty
Real change in your movement patterns and pain levels is rarely a neat, linear process. Your body has to explore new territories, which can feel chaotic and uncomfortable.
But change should still be detectable. Whether it's increased awareness, better function, improved exercise tolerance, or simply more good days mixed in with the challenging ones.
The key is learning to read your body's data correctly. To see progress in places you might not expect it. And to trust the process when it's genuinely working while having the wisdom to pivot when it's not.
Ready to start tracking your own movement experiments systematically?
[Download the Free Movement & Posture Pain Tracking Journal 📓↓]
P.S. The most valuable data often comes from tracking what you DON'T expect to improve. Sleep, energy, mood, and daily function can show progress long before your pain scores change. Don't just track the pain, track the whole experience.
Read about my chronic pain and all the expensive mistakes I made along the way before journaling about my pain and posture. Stop Guessing, Start Tracking: Why I Wasted $16,000 and 8 Years Chasing the Wrong Solution
