Know your pain Knowing the difference between good and bad pain is kinda of like knowing the difference between when your car is just leaking a bit of oil or it’s about to burst into flames. Also knowing what treatment options are available and what they can do for you is good aswell. No point taking your car to an air conditioning specialist when the muffler’s rooted. What would I call good pain? General soreness, aching, DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness, usually resulting from resistance training) and muscle tightness would all fall into this category. Bad pain? Well that’s pretty significant and results in a “that’s not quite right” or NQR sensation. For example sharp shooting pains, loss of movement function are a couple signs. When starting on a training program or attempting to push the body a bit further to get fitter, faster or stronger people will always start complaining about areas they are sore or they are like archaeologists and discover muscles they never thought they had. Well you’ve always had these muscles you’ve just never done enough to activate them. Whenever you push your limits or try to lift heavier or go faster you’re asking the body to make a change and physically, this will always come with some pain. No pain, no gain, right. So pain is a result of getting physically better. Like I said above, aching and soreness are all normal and good pain. When your training results in loss of normal function, that’s when you’ve gone too far. BAD pain. You’re going to know when you’ve gone too far. At its extreme you’ve heard a crack! Or in a more mild case it’s later that day or the next day and you can’t move. In this case having rest days ain’t gonna help, you’re past that point. You need some help. Fortunately for us all the help we need ain’t far away. GPs, massage therapists, chiropractors, podiatrists, acupuncturists, physiotherapists etc are all going to be able to help… you just have to pay for it. So if you’re in this situation, here’s my ‘soldiers five’ on who to see Sickness, virus, something weird that needs diagnosing = GP Muscular tightness, need more movement = massage therapist, acupuncture, physiotherapist (lower body) or occupational therapist (upper body). Bone, nerve or structural issues = chiropractor and podiatrist (foot) If you think you are borderline or sitting in the middle of good and bad pain the best initial action is to take one or two days away from training and then restart with an easy session. In any case, your body will tell what your training program will be, not a piece of paper.
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 08:00:00 +0000