You've probably felt it before. You're halfway through a workout when something starts to hurt. Now you're left wondering what you should do. Many people believe there are only two options:
- Push through the pain
- Stop exercising completely and wait for the pain to go away.
The truth though? For most injuries, the best answer is somewhere in the middle. That’s not a sexy answer, but when dealing with how the human body performs, we need a little nuance to keep you moving while doing the right things to help the painful area heal.
The Myth: Pain Always Means Damage
Pain is more complicated than something being injured, and most often that’s not the case!
Here are some important things to consider when managing pain.
- Pain is your body's warning system, not always a measure of damage.
- Muscles and joints be sore without being injured.
- An old injury can become painful without being “re-injured”
What’s important to understand is that pain is information we can use to determine the extent of irritation. It's not a stop sign for all activity involving the affected area.
A Simple "Traffic Light" System We Use
Training with pain or an injury is possible, but it takes some nuance and a careful approach. We explain this to our patients as a “traffic light” system they can reference when determining if they should or should not be doing a certain activity
🟢 Green Light: Safe to Continue:
- Mild discomfort (0–3/10)
- Doesn't change how you move
- Doesn't get progressively worse during exercise
- Returns to baseline within 24 hours or before the next day
The takeaway: Continue training while monitoring symptoms.
🟡 Yellow Light: Modify Your Workout
- Pain around 4–5/10
- Movement feels uncomfortable but still doable
- Pain increases with certain exercises
Ways to modify and continue training:
- Reduce weights
- Shorten range of motion
- Slow the tempo (3 second lower and raise)
- Decrease volume (instead of 4 sets do 2)
- Choose a different exercise (landmine press instead of shoulder press)
🔴 Red Light: Stop!
- Sharp or severe pain, above a 6/10
- Pain doesn’t go back to baseline after a workout or exercise
- Pain that rapidly worsens with a movement or exercise
- Numbness or tingling
- Significant changes in movement
If you're in Columbus Ohio and pain is keeping you from lifting, running, or training the way you want, don’t just work around it and hope it goes away. Schedule a free discovery call today to find out what’s causing the problem and build a plan to get you back to training with confidence!