There is never a need to train through pain.
Wait… isn’t pain just part of the territory? Isn’t it normal with age, or if you’ve played sports your whole life?
Not quite.
Pain isn’t a prerequisite for exercising—or aging, for that matter. But unfortunately, many people live with it every day.
Sometimes it’s from years of wear and tear, sometimes it’s from a specific injury, and sometimes it’s just what life throws at you. One way or another, almost everyone experiences pain at some point.
And I don’t know about you, but I hate being in pain.
Personally, I’ve dealt with shoulder issues that turned into neck pain and eventually affected my low back. Because I didn’t address the root of it early on, I dealt with that pain for years—and it’s the last thing I ever want to experience again.
I’m guessing most people feel the same.
So the question becomes: Can we still work out while dealing with pain—and maybe even feel better in the process?
Let’s walk through how.
Address What the Hell Is Going On
First things first—why are you in pain?
If it wasn’t caused by an acute injury (a fall, a tackle, a rolled ankle, etc.), it’s probably coming from something you do regularly: your lifestyle, posture, or movement patterns.
Let’s say your low back gets tight or sore every afternoon—and this has been happening for over 10 years. Now let’s say you started a desk job 12 years ago. That kind of daily sitting could easily be the root cause.
And after years of this, other problems have probably popped up along the way. So just “standing more” likely won’t be enough. Some targeted work is probably needed to speed things up and prevent the pain from coming back.
Next question: What makes the pain worse?
If you’ve been living with discomfort, chances are you already have a sense of what flares it up—and what doesn’t.
Take golfer’s elbow, for example. You might be able to golf just fine, but picking up a water bottle at the wrong angle in your car sends a sharp pain down your forearm. That’s useful info.
Once you have a better understanding of what’s causing the pain and what aggravates it, now it’s time to set a goal.
GOALS
I say this in just about every post, so I’ll keep it short: you need a goal to know where you’re going.
If you want to play more tennis but your elbow flares up every time you grab a racket, then your short-term goal probably isn’t “more tennis.”
But maybe you’re over 40, want to lose a little body fat, build muscle, and feel better. That’s a great goal—and totally achievable, even with some nagging aches.
Training
Rule #1: No exercise is mandatory.
If something hurts—don’t do it. Period. No exercise is worth pushing through pain.
Your training plan should focus on movements, not specific exercises.
Here’s a breakdown of movement patterns we use with clients:
- Squat
- Single-leg squat/lunge
- Upper body push
- Upper body pull
- Hinge (think deadlifts or hip thrusts)
- Core and carries (planks, loaded carries, etc.)
Let’s take bench press, a common upper body push. For many, it causes shoulder pain. But there are dozens of variations that hit the same muscle groups without pain—like a slight decline dumbbell press with a neutral grip.
The idea is to train the movement, not the exercise. Find what works for your body.
There’s almost always a way to modi
The Workouts
Step #1: Warm-up
Your warm-up matters—especially if you’re dealing with pain.
Here’s our basic warm-up structure:
- Foam roll (loosen up tight areas)
- Stretch (open up limited areas)
- Mobilize (improve range of motion)
- Activate (wake up the right muscles)
Here’s an example for a client with chronic low back pain:
- Foam roll glutes – :30/side
- Foam roll hip flexors – :30/side
- Couch stretch – :60/side
- 90/90 – x8/side
- Isometric single-leg hip bridge – :30
- Band pull-aparts – x12
This warm-up focused on loosening her tight areas while activating her weaker areas – and makes a huge difference in how she feels during workouts.
Step #2: Exercise Selection
This will be the main part of your workouts. Remember what we said “training” section – we want to focus on movements over particular exercises.
We want to find movements that allow us to work hard and move us closer to our goal, WITHOUT causing pain or injury.
Here’s a full-body workout template we often use:
A Block
- Squat variation
- Upper body pull
B Block
- Hinge or leg curl variation
- Upper body push
C Block
- Core or carry
- Upper back accessory
D Block
Finisher (optional based on time/energy)
With this template its about plugging in exercises that fit you, your goals, and your pain.
If you are dealing with knee pain and goblet squats tend to hurt your knees – a split squat might be a great option to toss in for your squat variation for the day.
And this is where we encourage everyone to track their workouts with as much detail as possible. Believe me, you are busy enough and trying to remember every single thing you felt/did during a workout earlier in the week is not an easy feat!
Track what you did, write notes, and keep finding ways to progress without causing pain.
I hope this helps and if you want some help creating a warm-up or workout template to work around your pain points just shoot us an email at jeff@naglefitness.com and we will do what we can to help you out.
In good health,
Jeff
