When you’re dealing with pain, it’s natural to focus on how much it hurts. But here’s the truth: pain levels alone don’t always reflect progress.

Pain can be unpredictable — influenced by things like stress, sleep, activity, and even the weather. That’s why healthcare professionals often recommend tracking something in addition to your symptoms: function.

Image Credit: Adam Meakins, 2015

The Road to Recovery - a common path for folks tracking pain and function.

What Do We Mean by “Function”?

Instead of asking “how much does it hurt?”, try asking:

What am I struggling to do — and how is that changing over time?

For example, you might track how well you can:

Get dressed
Do your job
Exercise or go for a walk
Sleep through the night
Cook dinner or carry groceries

A Simple Tool to Try

We use an adapted version of the Patient-Specific Functional Scale — a well-researched tool used by physiotherapists and rehab providers around the world.

Here’s how to use it:

Choose 2–3 activities that are important to you but currently limited by your pain.
Rate each activity from 0 to 10, where:
- 0 = I can’t do it at all
- 10 = I can do it as easily as I could before the pain started
Recheck your ratings weekly to see how things are changing.

If you only track pain, it can be hard to tell if you're actually making progress.

In the early stages of rehab, pain is often all over the place — some days it’s up, other days it’s down, and sometimes it doesn’t seem to change at all. That’s totally normal.

That’s why it’s important to also track other signs of recovery, like:

Your ability to do meaningful daily tasks
Improvements in range of motion and strength
A growing sense of confidence in your body

These are often the first signs that things are getting better — even before pain starts to shift. They show that your body is adapting and that you’re moving in the right direction.

Why It Works

Function tells the real story.

Even if your pain hasn’t changed much, improvements in what you can do mean your body is adapting, your confidence is growing, and you’re moving in the right direction.

Tracking function gives you a way to stay focused on meaningful progress — not just symptoms.

🎯 Want to try it? Link to Tracker

Need help picking which activities to track? Talk to your physiotherapist — they’ll help you choose the ones that matter most.