Training through Pain
‘NO PAIN NO GAIN’.
The common mantra you hear across ‘hardcore’ gyms around the world.
Especially in the MMA world.
According to some, if you can’t put up with a little pain, you’re not a man.
Well, it’s all B-S-.
Kinda.
Here’s the thing…
There are different types of ‘pain’ that can happen when you’re training…
There’s the burning pain you get in your muscles when you’re pushing yourself through an extra few reps of bench presses or bicep curls that’s a result of excess ‘lactic acid’ buildup in the muscles.
This is the type of pain that you want to train through and go beyond, as you know there’s no unwanted damage occurring and you’re not going to cause an injury.
With intense focus and determination, you can often gut out a few more sets compared to when you’re easy on yourself and you don’t have a partner urging you on.
One thing to remember is to ALWAYS TRAIN IN PERFECT TECHNIQUE.
That means you immediately stop when form breaks down.
If you’re in a fight and you start getting a bit tired, do you think it’s acceptable to have sloppy form?
Obviously not!
So train the way you want to fight.
Another little tip I always tell my fighters when we’re training hard is to keep a ‘poker face’ (unlike the pic below).
Even if you’re exhausted, don’t let your opponent know it by making faces like you’ve been constipated for the last 7 days and you’re about to unleash the fury!
Keep a calm, collected expression and you won’t energize your opponent by looking like you’re almost done.
This generally comes at the end of a hard set or during an intense interval type workout.
Yes, you’ve gotta go hard, but think of it as a controlled aggression, not an all-out, uncontrolled fury.
Other types of pain that you’re going to experience sooner or later include sharp, stabbing type pains where you just know something’s not right.
These are the things you want to avoid during training for two reasons.
One - you’re likely causing more damage to already injured tissues, which will lead to a more severe injury and lost training time.
Two – the pain will likely be causing changes in movement and motor patterns, which will lead to compensation injuries in the future.
Here’s an example…
When you sprain your ankle, your body wants to stay away from weight-bearing on your left leg.
Do this over and over and your body soon starts to avoid using the left leg during all different types of movements.
So say you start squatting heavy and because your body is trained to avoid the left leg, your body deviates to the right, putting damaging stresses on the lumbar spine and hips, resulting in an injury whenever you try to squat heavy!
You’ve got to avoid these compensatory movement patterns at all costs, because it takes a lot of specific exercise and rehab to break these patterns.
If you’ve had any injuries from training or anything that you think may be disrupting proper movement patterns, leave them in the comments section below and let’s analyze them to see if they may pose a problem for you:
Hi Eric,
Often when I do a squat-type movement (or jumps) I get stiffness and soreness in the left hip/oblique-area, sort of on the utside and towards the lower back. There is a shift in my hip when I approach parallel towards my left but I have a difficult time correcting this pattern by will alone so to speak.
I do joint mobility, hip bridges, bird-dogs and single leg exercises and I don’t go much below parallel when squatting, (stopping before my lower back rounds.
I’ve been trying hard to correct this for quite some time and have also consulted a physio therapist and a RKC-instructor.
Do you have any ideas or other concepts I can try?
Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks a’lot Eric.
/John
OK Eric,
I have this probably with my quad. I am in track and everytime I run on it or whenever I lift on it, it gets a pain in it. I think I pulled it but not really sure. My coaches tell me to practice light on it but it still occasionally hurts.
Do you have any tips, comments, or concerns?
Thanks,
Josh
Josh,
I used to have the same problem a few years back playin football and everytime i sprinted it felt like my quad was pulled or ripped…i played through the pain for weeks and never got better, it would feel fine until i ran. I decided to take a week or two off completely and the pain went away completely. I would say rest and maybe light stretching but dont stress it out let it recupe. Hope it helps.
Hi Eric,
I’m not training to be a fighter – just a mum losing weight & getting fit for her young sons – and my own sake. I like your sensible attitude & am learning a lot from you! I started running for the first time in my life, ignoring a niggling pain in my hip & hoping it would go away, because I was really enjoying running. It didn’t, of course. I am seeing some improvement when I do back straightening & posture exercises but it has been two steps forward, two steps back again for months now. The main symptoms are: my hip/groin won’t take my weight when I first stand up after sitting down. After about two or three steps it settles down enough for me to walk. If my good leg slips or gets tangled, it feels like my bad leg is being torn off! I have tried physio – she gave up, thinking maybe I had a labral tear or impingement. I can’t afford an MRI right now, and I don’t think that’s the problem, I think it’s a combination of compensatory movement patterns, combined with over-pronation (I wore orthotics for dislocating patellas as a teenager). I would love your advice on stretching & strengthening exercises. I have started concentrating on core and spine, because they seem to help more than just working on the hip. I am also desperate for any ideas on cardio I can do without continuing the injury process. I am getting SO bored with my exercise bike! I was wondering whether kettlebells would be a good idea as I have heard they are good core strengtheners? (I first found you while searching Youtube for kettlebell routines to see what they were all about.) Sorry for this long letter, but I am live in the Australian bush & have limited access to professional advice on such matters.
Regards,
Schelle
HEY EVERYONE,
Sorry for the lack of timely replies, but I was in Montreal for UFC 113 – AWESOME! Anyway I’m back so here are my replies…
@ John,
Sounds like you could try a couple of things:
1) Get those hammies looser! A combo of moist heat followed immediately by static stretching and dynamic hammie exercises like leg swings
2) Try the internal hip rotation stretch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7akV-FkCTlc < -- it's the last stretch of the 4
@ Josh,
Give foam rolling a try: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry-Jq9Qgf4Q <—- do it for the quads and all over for prevention of anything in the future.
@ Schelle,
It’s tough to say, sounds like there could be a lot going on. In terms of weight loss – big focus must be on nutrition. You can lose weight with proper nutrition and keeping moving! It just won’t be as fast or you won’t get stronger or more fit – but while you’re healing it works.
One thing I never recommend is running if you’re overweight and not strong. If you can’t do proper body weight squats at least until your thigh goes parallel, you have no place running, or lunges with proper posture and form.
If you’re in pain, don’t try anything ballistic like kettlebells yet… Stick with basic core stability exercises like Planks and Birddogs and progress their difficulty before moving to dynamic/ballistic exercises that require core stability.
That’s about all I can recommend right now without actually working with you hands on. Hope it helps.
- Eric
Hi Eric,
thanks for your sensible advice. I thought you might like to know the outcome – turns out I had a non-malignant cyst in my femur. One day I was going cycling with my boys, transferred my weight suddenly to my bad leg and it snapped in half near the hip. Not much fun. I now have a titanium rod from hip to knee, and a bone graft as well. The focus is definitely on nutrition now, and as for training through pain, in some ways that’s what physiotherapy exercises are all about, hey? I am hoping to get the all clear to learn to walk again soon… Thanks again for taking the time to reply!
Hi Eric,
My name is Mongkhon Bangsaeng (Diz). Yeh you prob heard of me from the emails i’ve sent. I’m sorry to bother you here but this has really been on my mind. Well, I’ve followed your program for 4 weeks now, started off in base conditioning and now im in the stength phase, only done one day so far. Since i’ve started your program i’ve gained probably 2 kg and now im 60. To fight in my local area, the lowest division is 60-65kg. so for this if i want the most advantage possible i’d prob need to be around 66-68 kg. Now to gain mass usually people will do bodybuilding and as i understand your program will put some mass on but very slowly compared to bodybuilding. so to supplement the your program i’ve added another day of weight training doing bodybuilding exercises such as bench press, barbell curls, concentrated bicep curl, military press etc. What do you think of this plan? I really want to gain the mass pretty quick. Please show me the way. I’m really in a dilemma whether to continue with your program or just go straight into bodybuilding for now until i’ve gained the mass but the problem with this path is I don’t know how I will keep that mass if I revert back to strength building so please tell me how I should go about all this the right way.
Diz
Hey man,
I’d continue with the program until your weight plateaus.
Just make sure you’re eating like a madman and you should be good to go.
2kg in 4 weeks is great!
Hello,
I seem to be having pain in my glute. When I bend down, it feels like a sharp pain. Also, it started when I felt a sharp burnning, stinging pain around my hamstrings. My leg went stiff. I had to pull myself up fast and soon the pain in my glut came. What do you think is the issue? This incident was during weight training.
What were you doing when this happened?
I just went to pick up the 25 pound weight. As I went to pick it up i felt a sting; then a burn. around my hamstrings. I had to sit down. my leg would not bend. I could not get up. Then, as I forced my self up, it went away, but then my glut started to hurt. When I would bend down, I would feel a sharp pain. I picked the weights up properly even though it is only 25 pounds. The pain only comes now when I dont Stretch. So, I stretch every day. When that pain came i did not here any snaps at all.
I was picking up a 25 pound weight.
Did you reach for it? Usually something like that sounds like a disc. Slipped/bulged disc that is now pressing on the nerve.
Sounds like it’s more on one side than the other (the side that the leg hurts).
Try side bends on that side (if it’s your right, reach your right hand down your leg) and pressups (like a pushup but arch your back up).
See this for some additional exercises: LBP Exercises
Hey Eric,
Been having some pain along the outer edge of my wrists when squatting heavy. Now the pain is kinda consistent all the time and is hampering my squats. Any suggestions?
That’s interesting. Sounds like you need more flexibility through your chest and shoulders to there’s less strain on your wrists and the bar can rest more on your shoulders.
Stretch your chest and shoulders out before you squat and see if that helps.
You shouldn’t be holding a heavy bar on your back with much wrist strength. It should be resting on the shoulders and the hands just kinda keep it there without much difficulty.
Hi Eric, like your emails always good info. i am 47 and have pain in my right arm right above my elbow. i can do chin ups and everything else but bicep curls and i have pain midway. on kbell snatches. i think it is a tendon that wont heal. i hurt it originally 5 years ago carry my kids in my arms for about a mile (35 and 45 lbs). it seems to get better when i do a yoga movement where i lie on my arms and almost bend/stretch my elbow in a reverse. any thougthts on how to remedy this? thanks
Hi Eric,
Thanks for your message via email, I will try and keep this as short as possible – On Friday past I was about to do my usual Kettlebell routine and was taking my 2yr old son out into to the garden to play whilst doing the workout – he made a run for the road and as I ran to catch him my back seemed to give, it felt worse on the right-hand-side, it seems to feel quite weak still since then and I tried your Damage Control Routine that you kindly sent last night for the 1st time and it helped my stiffness, my back felt weakest while trying the side plank on my RHS.
Although the pain has improved I am eagar to get back to training with the kettlebells (although i’m cautious also) and was wondering how long should I leave it and could I do some training on my crosstrainer, to keep my fitness level up. I read from one of your articles on back pain that there are such things as a sleepy tranverse abdominis I feel that this may contribute to the problem – please can you suggest any exercises/clips to really tighten and strenghten this area, apologies for the length of this message, just keen to get back at it. Many thanks for looking at this, Eric. Thank you, Annie.