Working through pain?

I'll assume you mean pain from injury and not muscle soreness from pushing it in the gym. In my book these are very different. Also my experience is coming from someone who was never an athlete or strong guy in past years.

About 4 years ago I was full-blaze ahead no matter what the cost and learned the hard way it wasn't sustainable. To me, there's no benefit to exercise if it results in injury.

Sometimes it's not having a well balanced program so you're always working the same body parts and as with anything that gets overused - bad things can happen.

After being sidelined a number of times and recognizing middle age feels a little different than my 20's, I've learned to moderate and balance what I do for exercise and take recovery days. For me that means a balance of different forms of cardio, weightlifting (total body dumbbell routines) and Pilates (mostly reformer).

If you keep pressing matters being injured, I think you only make matters worse.

I'm sure you will get many different view points on this as we all come from different places and have different starting points.

Aches and pains are one thing and can be pushed through however actual injuries are another. I tore my hamstring at the beginning of September and saw a physiotherapist right away. She had me take a complete break from crossfit for just over 7 weeks. She assigned me a whole bunch of band and bodyweight exercises and stretches to do for targeted recovery that amounted to over an hour of (very painful) work each day so it's not like I was doing nothing during that break.

After those 7 weeks, I was given the OK to go back to crossfit but with some restrictions--no jumping, no cutting action, gentle deadlifts only, no ATG squats--while continuing with the (less painful) physio. I was only doing crossfit 2-3 times a week at this point because it was a lot when coupled with over an hour of physio daily. Fast forward to the week before Christmas: the physiotherapist streamlined my program down to about half of what it was and greenlit jumping and deadlifting however still no cutting action or ATG squats--not sure those will ever be on the menu again without knee surgery With the reduced physio, I returned to crossfit full time in the New Year.

So, after about four months, I'm more or less back to normal though I still do the physio over and above my regular routine. I could have just stopped exercising altogether or tried to work through it on my own but I believe I will be stronger and better off in the long run having seen the physiotherapist. If nothing else, she has me working to correct a lot of my form issues, some of which prolly contributed to me injuring myself in the first place and I'll return to her for more development when I have fully mastered the program she has me on now.

TLDR: seeing a physiotherapist is a good idea if you are injured rather than simply normal sore.

It would be beneficial to work around pain and/or injury. There is plenty of literature and studies showing that injuries heal faster and reoccur much less if one continues to train at appropriate volume with useful intensity.

For instance if it hurts to squat at depth with your normal stance because of a hamstring strain, then try different a different stance. Or try a varient of the squat.

If you squat low bar and pain gets worse than try high bar. If you pull sumo, try conventional. If it hurts to go to full depth, then pin squat at partial depth. So on.

Basically find a way to train that the pain is tolerable and gets better as you train.

I would also state that if you are injured it's almost always poor load management. Correct that, and you will be on a better track.

If you are running SL 5×5 for more than 3-4 months, it's likely this might be some of the cause since you would be grinding out a LP that isn't made to progress after one maybe two deloads at best. More advanced programming would be beneficial regardless if this is the case.

Linear Progression.

rfajitas12345 wrote: »

I started weight training about 6 months ago. Ever since then, it's been an onslaught of minor injuries and pain. A sprained wrist, lower back pain, knee issues, etc.

What has been your experience with this? Do you push through the workout even with the pain? It seems that if I were to stop and let my body recover, I'd probably only go to the gym once a month.

Looking for everyone's thoughts and opinions.

Um if you didn't have pain before and you do now, find another sport. I live in chronic spine/tailbone pain, and believe me there's nothing I wouldn't give to be out of that pain. If you are causing your pain by your actions - stop them.

I’ve always loved working out, but early on, in my 20s-30s, I had constant problems with injuries and pain, so much so that I eventually gave up. Fast forward to a major life reboot in 2013: 90-lb weight loss, and back in the gym, but THIS time under the supervision of a really good trainer. I still have a fair amount of pain, and am prone to nagging injuries, but I now know what my various structural deficiencies and muscle imbalances are, and my trainer helps me work around them, and through them. If you are having similar problems, get yourself evaluated by a good physiatrist, and if necessary into the hands of a good physical therapist and/or trainer with a PT background.

When I started up I hired a professional to ensure I had perfect form. We worked for the first few weeks with light weights or just a broom stick. You can hide bad form under weight, where this is highlighted when lifting light weights.

Soreness is normal and expected - your body is attempting to grow and develop new tissue to support new activity. Pain on the other hand is not normal and your body signalling to stop. Rest, heal, and come back stronger.

Soreness lasts 24-72 hours and originates in the muscles. Pain is often sharp and striking and originates in the muscles and joints.