Pain-Free Fitness: Why You Keep Getting Injured (…And How To Fix It)

📖 DEEP DIVE

Why does your pain always come back just when you think you’re finally better?

You’re feeling good, enjoying your day, but as soon as you push yourself at the gym, the pain comes back.

This frustrating cycle halts your progress in its’ tracks.

What if you could break free from this cycle and confidently get back to your workouts?

With the right approach, it’s possible to fully recover, build resilience, and stay injury-free.

By the end of this article, you’ll understand why injuries happen, how to approach recovery, and how to better prepare yourself to avoid future injuries.

Let's dive in.

Eventually, Rehab Should Feel More Like Training

Traditional rehab helps you manage pain and get back to daily life, but that’s not enough to prevent future pain and injuries.

To fully enjoy your workouts, sports, and hobbies, rehab should eventually mimic the intensity of your regular workouts, building the strength, endurance, and capacity needed to handle your favorite activities without pain.

If you’re recovering from a low back injury, for example, rehab might focus on stretching and gentle core exercises.

However, to lift pain-free, you need full-body strength. This might start with lower-intensity, higher-volume lunges instead of heavy barbell squats to bridge the gap between rehab and training.

Load vs. Capacity: The Injury Equation

Injuries occur when the load on your body exceeds your capacity to handle it.

The dotted line in the chart represents your capacity—the maximum load your body can safely manage. Staying below this threshold reduces injury risk, while exceeding it increases the potential for pain and injury.

After recovering from a back injury, you may feel fine walking around, but when you hit the gym for deadlifts, bam - the pain comes right back. That's because the load of heavy lifting exceeds your body's current capacity.

To build capacity, you have to gradually increase exercise intensity. Start with lighter weights and higher reps, then slowly increase intensity as capacity improves.

Just like lifting heavier weights makes your muscles stronger, increasing the intensity of your rehab prepares you for the physical challenges of your favorite activities, reducing the risk of re-injury so you can stay active and pain-free.

If you’re hurting, don’t push hard to increase your capacity yet. First, reduce your current load to get below the pain threshold and out of pain quickly. Once your pain is under control, start to gradually increase your overall capacity.

Respecting Your Limits

Remember that old "no pain, no gain" mentality?

It’s outdated and harmful. Exceeding your body's capacity increases your injury risk significantly.

It’s like driving an old Ford Fiesta as if it were a Ferrari—you might push it to 100 mph for a while, but eventually, it will break down. Similarly, pushing your body beyond its limits leads to a high risk of re-injury.

For athletes and weekend warriors, there's a balance between pushing hard enough to improve performance while avoiding overload that leads to injuries. Go too hard, too fast, and you'll pay the price.

Tune into your body's signals. If you feel pain, stiffness, or discomfort increasing, back off to avoid crossing that injury threshold.

For example, if lifting weights increases your pain, reduce the weight to a more manageable level and gradually build up over time as pain allows.

The Two Phases of Rehab

Rehab isn't a one-size-fits-all process; effective rehab involves two distinct phases:

Phase 1 reduces load to manage pain and promote healing, allowing you to return to daily life. Traditional rehab covers this, getting you functional again. However, this is just the beginning.

Phase 2 builds your capacity through targeted training and progressive overload, so you can return to the workouts, sports, and activities you love without fear of injury.

For example, Adam came to me with chronic lower back pain that prevented him from working out and playing with his kids. He had done rehab before, but his pain kept coming back because rehab stopped when he was “good enough.”

We started Phase 1 of his rehab with breathing exercises and mobility work to reduce load, decompress his back and relieve pain.

But once his pain subsided, we got after it in the gym. We started low-intensity strength-training and built up to heavy deadlifts, kettlebell swings, and eventually full-intensity workouts.

Now, he’s pain-free, stronger than ever and enjoys playing with his kids again.

TL;DR: Building Superhuman Capacity

Most people stop rehab WAY too early.

They hit 'good enough' for daily life and stop, but this leaves you vulnerable to re-injury because you haven’t built your body’s capacity back up.

To minimize future injuries, continue progressive strength training to build your strength, capacity, and minimize the chances of your pain coming back.

Think of this as your “forever phase.”

For a simple progression that can be applied to any exercise, start here:

Free Bonus Resource: Pain-Free Progressive Overload Protocol

Respect your limits and gradually increase capacity over time.

It’s not a quick fix, but it’s the best way to stay fit, strong, and active without constant flare-ups.

So ask yourself:

Are you building capacity for the long haul–or just getting by?

That’s all for this week. See you next Friday.