Chronic Pain – How Much Pain is Safe During Exercise?

In this post we’re getting super practical. We’re talking about tips to know how much pain is safe during exercise. This is especially important if you’re working on getting back into exercise after an injury. You need to know when to push through pain and when to back off. 

Whether you’re dealing with a new injury or a chronic injury (3 months or more), these tips are for you. They can be used during walking, running, weight lifting, Pilates, yoga, or any other form of exercise. Today we’ll use the analogy of a traffic light to describe these safety tips during exercise. Let’s dive in! 

Green = Continue exercise

This is where we’d all like to be all the time. When these things describe how you’re feeling during a workout, keep going and if you feel ready, push harder! 

• No pain at all
• Minimal pain that goes away as you get further into your workout
• Minimal pain that does not increase during your workout 
• Minimal pain during your workout that doesn’t linger after your workout

Yellow = Pay attention to your pain

This is the grey (or rather, yellow) zone. You need to pay attention to how you are feeling while you exercise and how you feel after you exercise, especially if you’re trying something new in your workout. If the list below describe what you’re feeling, you should modify your workout.

• Pain that starts at the beginning of your workout and doesn’t go away. 
• Pain that gets worse during your workout but doesn’t go above a 5/10. 
• Pain that you don’t feel during your workout but shows up after and stays for 24 hours or longer. 

Red = Stop exercise or modify significantly

If these things describe your workout, you should stop. If you don’t, you risk increasing your chronic pain or making your new injury worse. So stop your workout or modify your workout significantly if these things describe what you feel. 

• Sharp pain that stays longer than 1-2 minutes during a workout. 
• Pain that continues to get worse as you progress through your workout. 
• Pain that lasts after your workout for more than 24 hours and keeps you from normal activities. 

These safety tips will help you know if you should continue your workout, modify your workout, or end your workout completely. Use these tips when trying to get back to exercise if you’ve been away because of chronic pain or any other reason. 

Have someone in your corner when dealing with chronic pain and injury.

Although these tips are really practical and can guide you to avoid a new injury or a flare up of an old injury, it’s always a good idea to have an expert to help you as well. Always consult your doctor or other qualified healthcare professional when starting a new form of exercise. Especially if you’re dealing with pain, I recommend a musculoskeletal expert such as a physical therapist! 

If you’re trying to get back to exercise, you won’t want to miss my last post on how to effectively set goals. Read it here! 

Get ready! My next series of posts will be on knee pain. If you haven’t subscribed yet, do it here so you never miss a post!

Have questions about these safety tips? I’d love to hear from you! Reach out to be on Instagram, @allieisracing. 

Disclaimer: You should always consult your doctor before making changes to your health strategy especially if you have a chronic condition. If any of these strategies sound especially helpful for you, be sure to discuss with your doctor the best way to implement them into your health plan.