📖 DEEP DIVE

What if avoiding pain during workouts is actually setting you up for chronic pain?

It sounds strange, but avoiding pain can actually make it worse over time. If you’ve had pain for more than a few weeks, you need to work through some discomfort to get better.

Persistent pain often happens because your body gets weak and not used to movement. The best fix? Start moving again so your body gets strong enough to do what you need to do.

To be clear, I’m not saying to “push through pain.” The best thing to do is stay active and follow a predetermined set of ‘pain rules’ to stay safe.

Today, you’ll learn why you shouldn’t fear pain but instead use it to monitor your workouts and adjust.

My goal is to give you a simple system to manage pain while exercising so you never do “more harm than good” and can stay active without fear of getting hurt again.

Let’s dive in.

The Traffic Light Pain Rules

Pain doesn’t always mean you’re injured. It’s just a signal to pay closer attention to your body.

The Traffic Light Pain Rules is a simple system to manage pain while exercising, so you don’t do ‘more harm than good’.

Like traffic lights, it uses green, yellow, and red to show when to keep going, slow down, or stop. This helps you manage pain during workouts and adjust exercises. There are four key areas to check:

• Pain intensity

• Pain during movement

• Pain after movement

• Pain after a workout

These guidelines can help you stay active and avoid making injuries worse. Here’s how to use this system in your workouts.

Exercise Through Pain Safely

The goal is to find the ‘safe-zone’ where you can work through pain without making it worse. Don’t avoid pain completely, but exercise at a level that is tolerable.

'Tolerable' means different things for different people, but you should avoid extreme or increasing levels of pain.

ACTION STEP: Monitor your pain on a scale from 0 to 10. Aim to keep pain at 4/10 or less during exercise. Research shows this helps gradually build strength and reduce pain over time, preventing excessive increases in symptoms and promoting long-term recovery.

Monitor Pain During Movement

Watch how your pain changes with movement. This will help you decide what exercises, intensity, volume, and range of motion are right for you.

If symptoms get better (green light) or stay the same (yellow light), you’re on the right track.

If symptoms get worse (red light), modify your exercise to make it more tolerable.

This might mean reducing intensity, sets/reps, or range of motion.

For example, if deadlifts from the floor increase your back pain, but rack pulls from knee height feel fine, stick with rack pulls and gradually increase the range of motion as symptoms allow.

ACTION STEP: Even if you get a red light, keep exercising and stay active. Complete rest can make pain and deconditioning worse. Adjust your exercises to a tolerable level and keep moving.

Check Pain After Exercise

How your pain behaves after exercise shows how irritable your condition is.

If your pain decreases (green light) or returns to baseline (yellow light) within 60 seconds after exercise, you’re tolerating the activity well. If the pain persists or increases (red light), you might be pushing too hard.

This helps you decide the right intensity for your workouts. For example, if your knee pain improves or stays the same after lunges, continue at that intensity. If the pain increases, reduce the intensity or range of motion until it’s manageable.

ACTION STEP: After exercising, rest for 60 seconds. If your pain returns to baseline or improves, keep doing similar exercises. If the pain persists or increases, reduce the intensity or range of motion for your next set. This helps you find the right balance in your workouts.

Monitor Pain Over 48 Hours

Some symptoms and discomfort after exercise are normal. But you don’t want symptoms to stay above baseline for more than 48 hours.

If pain goes away (green light) or returns to baseline (yellow light) within 48 hours, your body is adapting well. If the pain persists (red light), the exercise load was too much.

This helps you adjust workout intensity to match your body’s tolerance. For example, if your pain subsides or returns to baseline within 48 hours after a workout, it means your body handled it well, showing your routine is effective and not causing long-term pain.

ACTION STEP: Track your pain levels for 48 hours after exercise. Adjust the intensity based on how quickly the pain subsides. This will help you maintain an effective workout routine without overloading your body.

Track Your Progress

Tracking your progress over time helps you see trends in your pain levels, so you can make better decisions about your fitness routine.

Zero pain would be ideal, but it’s not realistic in the short term. This process takes time, so we want to see an improving trend in symptoms over time.

If your pain becomes less frequent, less intense, or shorter in duration, you’re making great progress. If pain becomes more frequent, more intense, or longer-lasting, you’re likely doing too much.

For example, if your shoulder pain happens less often, is less severe, and goes away quicker over a month, it shows improvement.

This information helps you adjust your exercise intensity based on your progress.

ACTION STEP: Keep a simple pain journal. Note the frequency, intensity, and duration of your pain after each workout. Adjust your routine based on these trends to make informed decisions about your fitness routine.

TL;DR: Stay Active While Managing Pain

By following these tips, you can stay active and manage your pain, ensuring that your fitness routine supports your health without flaring up old injuries.

Print the Traffic Light Pain Rules cheat sheet and refer to it before and after exercise. Adjust your routine as needed to stay within safe pain levels.

Many of our clients find this tool invaluable for staying active while managing chronic pain.

The main takeaway is that pain is not a sign of tissue damage, but a signal to pay closer attention to your body.

While you should NOT just ‘push through pain,’ you should continue to stay active and train through pain within the ‘pain rules’ to stay safe and active.

Keep moving,

Dr. Matt