Your Pain Guide with Exercise

You CAN exercise with pain.

But it’s important to have guidelines and frameworks to help us make decisions.

Guidelines:

• Pain stays less than 3-4/10 during movement.

• Pain stays the same or decreases with movement.

• Range of motion and movement quality stays consistent between reps.

• Pain reduces after finishing exercise.

• Pain returns to baseline within 48 hours.

What if your pain has been higher than a 4/10 for a long period of time?

First. go see a health professional.

If you are cleared to train that painful area, a different framework could be helpful.

What that diagram means is that your training intensity (or RPE) should be adjusted based on your current pain levels.

This can keep you moving so that your body doesn’t become deconditioned.

Notes:

• This is NOT medical advice.

• Pain is subjective and pain tolerances will vary between people.

• These are guidelines not a set of firm rules.