How to train and still achieve results around your pain
Studies show that 43% of the UK suffer with chronic pain of some sort, this equates to just under 23 million people. Although I’m an advocate of fixing pain first before training around it, I do believe you can build an effective programme and still achieve the results you want.
The first thing we need to do when building a programme around pain, we have to understand why we experience pain. Does the pain come from your line of work? Was it caused from an injury? Did it begin by something you done in the gym? If these are questions you struggle to answer it’s worth seeking professional help to have a better understanding of why you have pain. This will help you not only try to fix the issue but it will give you an idea of what to avoid so that you can still achieve the results you want.
I want to highlight an important point, and this is that you can still build a full body strength training programme as well as fixing the issue surrounding your pain. It shouldn’t be one or the other.
I’m guessing you’re reading this because you have pain of some sort and you still want to improve your strength, so with this I’m going to give you a case in how I helped my client, who was an ex-rugby player and wanted to train around his chronic low back pain.
Low back pain is a fairly common issue so this is how I tackled it:
All the exercises I chose where those that offered as little pressure to the area as possible, for instance, within the programme we needed some sort of pulling movement. I ran through exercise selections and a dual prone row was selected. Why did I choose a dual prone row?
1) By lying on the bench there was no need for spine stability
2) It was an exercise that could be progressively overloaded by changing dumbbells
3) The client gave me feedback saying there was no pain
Although this might seem relatively simple, all boxes were ticked. He performed the pulling movement and got the stimulus we were after whilst causing no pain. Throughout programming I had this checklist for all movements that needed to be done. Of course this all matters on the client and their specific goal but for this case my client wanted to train full body strength training to get back into the mindset of health and fitness he had when he was playing professional sports. My goal was to provide the intensity and frequency to help him achieve this feeling whilst mitigating pain.
The workouts weren’t anything crazy, this is an important point to bring up because something I’ve noticed is those who have pain feel like they have to go harder in the gym to compensate but simply giving yourself the minimal effective dose whilst not making the pain worse should be the goal.
This is where I find having a coach will be the most effective answer, the right coach will be able to build a programme around your pain and give you the results you want. When it comes to training with pain it’s a very specialised area and I urge you to do your research before jumping in with a coach as In my time I’ve seen some cases get worse rather than better. The right coach will even be able to fix your pain whilst taking you through a strength training programme.
With this being said, here are some of my top tips for training around pain:
1) Understand why you feel pain
2) Understand what movements cause you pain
3) You will be able to do the mechanical movement but what exercise you choose will be important
4) Never train through pain
5) More isn’t better, better is better
Again, my answer to this will always be to hire a coach and have them assess you and build a programme for your needs. Leaving pain to chance is a risky job and should never be a gamble. No matter what age you are or how long you’ve been experiencing the pain, it can always be fixed.
For further help, my contact is linked below and I am always open to have a discussion to give you the best advice in helping!