Should you Train Through Pain? Yes!

Everybody who trains hard and lifts heavy has had to deal with injury. The common sense response is to stop training and stay away from the gym for weeks until the injury has healed. Many doctors will tell you the same thing. You had better listen to a doc who has experience in lifting or training injuries. It is possible that what seems to be a small pain in your lower back could paralyze you. Buy doctors who are not training specialists will usually just say to lay off training in all cases. The human body has a powerful ability to heal itself and often does not need weeks of rest to recover. Sometimes what it needs is actually more training.

To illustrate let me tell you about what happened to a training partner of mine. He started his workout with a good warming up and stretched everything out. Then he started in on his usual progession, upping weight in his usual sequence. He did everything right, just like always. But that time, something went off in his lower back during a lift. He described it as feeling like his muscle came loose from his spinal cord. He put the weight down, packed up and left the gym. He told me that by the time he got home his back was so stiff and painful he could hardly walk up the stairs to his door. The next day he did no training, stayed at home and said he moved like an old man.

But on the second day, he was back in the gym. He was a real monster and nothing could keep him from training. His back was still killing him but he had a plan: he would blast his chest. He could do this laying out on his back on a bench. And guess what? As he trained, it actually made his back feel better! The next day he was back blasting his shoulders. He did lifts that kept the stress off his back and again training made him improve!

Training boosts blood supply to the muscles in your body and that helps them heal. That is one mechanism that nobody can deny. For those of you who believe that the mind has power over the body, continuing your training is a great way to focus your mental energy on healing. It helps develop that "Can do" attitude your body needs to recuperate. When you get hurt, train as hard as you can without damaging yourself more. Do not lay off the weights.

If you train through the pain you will teach your body not to give up and it will get into high gear rebuilding itself!

Guest post by Bryce.