Identify Pain

Different kinds of pain and how to identify them.

We all know the saying “no pain, no gain”, but with the wrong pain, the opposite might be true.

It is important to accept that results won’t come easy and that we need to work hard, but it is equally important to know which kind of pain we are talking about if we want to progress safely and avoid injury.

Can you tell the difference between the burning feeling due to muscle fatigue and the sharp pain of an injury? Probably. What about the difference between a sore muscle and a slight tear? This one is less obvious.

Resting until the feeling disappears might seem a like a solution, but it’s not that simple. Sore muscles are a normal part of training, it doesn’t always happen but when it does it usually lasts for a few days or more. We cannot always rest until the feeling disappears, because that would mean missing a lot of sessions unnecessarily. This is why we need to be mindful and aware of our body and train ourselves to recognize pain so we know when to rest and when it is safe to keep training.

So here are a few key points for you to identify the kind of pain you want to avoid:

1) Burn feeling after a workout: usually felt in the whole muscle group, doesn’t really hurt and doesn’t affect movement. Do not worry about this.

2) Sore muscles: usually felt a day after a workout, also felt in a whole muscle group. The pain occurs mostly during movement and feels like we just finished a set. Nothing to worry about either but it’s better to wait 2 days before training the same muscle group again.

3) Muscle injury: of course if the injury is serious you will know something is wrong, but if it is only a light one, you might ignore it and continue training and likely make it worse. This pain is usually localized and can be felt when pressing on a particular spot. Certain moves will also send a sharp thrill from the muscle to the surrounding areas. Discontinue training this part for about 3 weeks and slowly resume exercise.

4) Connective tissue injury: we are talking about something more serious here. Ligaments and tendons are parts of your body you really don’t want to injure, and for one simple reason: healing them takes months. Also, if you ever hurt them you will feel the pain and suffer in many daily activities. It can be felt as a sharp pain in the joints, or a painful tightness, and sometimes it feels very similar to muscle soreness but it is localized in the joints and is much more painful during moves involving these joints.

Discontinue training this part for weeks until the pain has completely disappeared, then resume training with light load and more repetitions.

Pain is a part of training but injury shouldn't be. At Enso Calisthenics, we pride ourselves in providing training where the risk of injury is close to 0, as long as exercises, recovery time, and gradual progressions are all followed as instructed.

Here’s a final tip to avoid hurting yourself: don’t chase pain, don’t chase fatigue, chase challenge instead.