There is a whole generation of people who (at least in America) were taught the concept of “no pain, no gain”. Essentially saying that no matter what you are doing if you aren’t in some type of pain then you aren’t doing enough. If you were in significant pain during a workout or after a workout, that was good because that meant you were getting stronger. The Marines still to this day have some type of slogan about “pain is weakness leaving the body”. I understand that the Marines are a whole different group of people with the mental and physical toughness that they have, and that does not mean that “pain is weakness leaving the body” is something that should be taught to them or to anybody.
With more research available now, it has actually been found that pain is your body’s way of telling you that something is WRONG. There are a number of things that could be going wrong in that exact moment - IT DEPENDS on what you are feeling, where you are feeling it, what you are doing, and your medical/injury history. No matter what all of that is though, if something actually hurts and is actually painful you need to change something!
Let’s talk about working out for a minute. If you are doing a deadlift for example, and your low back is screaming in pain every time you either lower the weight towards the floor or you pull up (or both), that does not mean you should be thinking “okay great, that means I am doing great because I was able to increase my weight and the pain means I’m working hard”. That means that something needs to be modified! Whether it is your stance, your form, your grip, the weight on the bar - it will depend on each person - something still needs to change! I’m not saying that you can’t do the deadlift exercise. I would rather you did actually! I just want you to do it correctly! And if you are having significant pain (keep in mind that pain is different than muscle soreness), I want you to understand that chances are you are doing something incorrectly. If you are having pain with a deadlift or any movement or activity, and you ignore that pain and think to yourself “no pain, no gain”, you are actually INCREASING your risk for injury.
When I say KNOW pain, KNOW gain - there are 2 very important things to keep in mind. The two things are: 1) You have to know what pain is and 2) You have to know what gain is (shocking, right?).
You have to understand what pain is - what it feels like, what it’s doing to you potentially, and how that is different than muscle soreness. And this is something that we can talk more about for sure. For now though, just think of pain as anything that feels more like a “pull” or a “stretch” to your muscle and it is uncomfortable. Anything that is uncomfortable and is only going to get even more uncomfortable if you were to continue doing the movement that is causing. It can be sharp, stabbing, throbbing, aching - anything that is uncomfortable and just feels wrong - we are calling that pain. Knowing that this is pain is the first step because we have to be able to listen to our bodies and understand what it is telling us! So, KNOW what pain is!
You have to know what gain is - what is truly a gain and what is not actually helping you in your journey. The example I’m going to use here is when somebody increases the weight they are using for resistance on their deadlift and then they do the deadlift and they do it completely incorrectly. They don’t get full range of motion, the correct muscles are not activating, etc. But they did it right? So in many people’s heads they could say “yeah I can deadlift 200 pounds”. And this would be considered a gain to them. However, did you do it right? If I gave you the exact same 200 pounds and coached you through every step of the way and made sure your form was completely perfect, and you couldn’t get all the way down and up without sacrificing that form and compromising with other muscles, is that still a gain? Nope. (Form vs. resistance is also a whole other topic of conversation that we will get to but hang with me here). If you can deadlift 175 pounds perfectly and you keep building up that strength and maintaining form and THEN you try to deadlift 200 pounds and your form is correct and you have no areas of pain and your muscles are activated correctly, then yes THAT is a gain. If you have to compromise or compensate to get to the next “gain”, you haven’t gotten to that gain yet.
That is where the biggest difference is between KNOW pain, KNOW gain and NO pain, NO gain is. When you KNOW what pain is, you can listen to your body and you can train and do the things you love to do and do them correctly. By doing those, then you can truly make gains in whatever you are working on, without sacrificing your body or your health. When we say no pain, no gain, we are intentionally ignoring the signals our body is sending us that something is wrong, just to try to make some gain - and in turn, more than likely hurting ourselves and getting no gain at all instead.
Moral of the blog post here today? KNOW pain, KNOW gain will get you true gains. It will make you more in tune with your body and help you to do the things you love with a decreased risk for injury so that you can continue to do those things. NO pain, NO gain is an old-school incorrect thought process that has set so many people up for injury and pain and is not helpful in letting us live our best lives. Do you want to live in pain just to be able to say “oh yeah I can deadlift really heavy (with completely incorrect form and pain the whole time)”? Wouldn’t you rather say “it’s taken me some time but after listening to my body and understanding my limitations and where I can push, I have truly been able to gain strength, confidence, and the ability to understand what my body is saying, and keep doing what I love to do without having to be worried all of the time”?
I’ll take option 2 please. And as always - things depend, but generally pain is not a good thing. It’s not even “a weakness”. Something is wrong. And if you are dealing with pain in any areas of your life, contact us today and let’s talk and figure out what is causing that pain, so that we can get to know your pain and get you to know your gain as well.
If you want to talk more about this concept and/or you need a physical therapist to help you through your pre-hab, rehab, or injury prevention or maximize your performance, do me a favor and email us today at livewithoutlimitspt@gmail.com and give us a follow on Instagram.com!
Thanks for being here!
Dr. Katie
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