I am a strength coach by classical definition. However, I am not into titles so personal trainer, coach, athletic guy all are fine with me. Notice, I did not include rehab specialist in my title. That is a different vocation and skill set altogether. Simply, I am the person you get to work with once you are cleared by the people with DR. in front of their names.
When people ask me for advice on pain, I always give them the same answer. Does it hurt when you do x,y or z? If so…don't do it.
Simple, correct?
Not exactly.
I empathize with athletes and adults because no one wants to be hurt. And especially if you love to hit the weight room and you are restricted by an injury.
We have all been there before and it is not fun.
But…what I have learned over the years is that people call not for your advice but to only confirm the answer they already have in their heads. Confirmation bias is alive and well in the world.
Despite the slightly nihilistic intro, I want to discuss something that happens in the gym on a regular basis.
Pain or soreness? We get this a lot and there is a distinct difference between the two.
At the beginning of each session, our clients fill out a general wellness questionnaire to assess their overall readiness and to get any aches and pains out in the open.
Our goal in the gym is to work around pain and not through it. If we have a client present for a session with knee pain and there are squats on the list for things to do…we change the session to accommodate.
Simple.
Pain is the main issue here. We should not be in pain when we are exercising. Even if it goes away after we warm up.
Remember, we need to be able to achieve a full range of motion pain free for things to go smoothly. If we are having pain at the joint, tendons, or insertion point , that will commonly reduce range of motion and that is not good either.
We cannot progress nor load more if the above things are present.
Soreness is common for people when they first start to exercise or when you introduce something new to their programs. I look at soreness as a response to the stress of exercise. Soreness is ok and to be expected. It is common for our new clients to come in and still have some residual soreness from their previous session.
It is imperative that we draw a clear distinction between the two for our members.
We want to feel soreness in the muscles. Not in the joints.
We want the soreness to be gone within a few days of your initial exercise bout.
If it has been over a week, we need to regress and attack your program from a different angle.
Oftentimes, our younger athletes will confuse pain with soreness.
With subsequent exercise bouts and more weight room time, it becomes easier for the kids to discern between the two.
But, if we program correctly, soreness is never an issue past the initial 2nd or 3rd week.
In closing, if you are in pain while training, stop. Regress or lateralize to another exercise. I have used the above simple rules for years and have managed to keep a lot of people in the gym consistently for years.
