060217 Pain and exercise

060217 Pain and exercise

Introduction

During the initial stages of an exercise program, a new trainee may not recognize what is a true and dangerous life altering pain and what is perceived but non-dangerous, pain. Certainly lifting weights can be quite the experience to uninitiated. However, there is dissimilarity between these different types of pain. One, the most dangerous, is from an injury and the other from the pain of fatigue, referred to as the pain of effort.

The pain of injury is the one to avoid and having a good coach is the key. Avoid this pain by lifting correctly, preventing contortions to move the weight,  not increasing the load beyond what the body can presently tolerate, following the correct rest periods, avoiding momentum, and preventing rapid shock load stresses on the joints.

As an example, a shock load stress to the knee results from an extremely fast drop to the bottom. The trainee does this in an effort to move more weight by letting the knee joint mechanically stop the downward movement of the bar in the hopes of creating an upward rebound effect.

Another example is when the bench press lifter lets the bar drop uncontrollably down, expecting the chest to first absorb the weight and then bounce it back up. Both of these examples, if continued, will generate an injury.

The result from this type of injury is the pain of injury. You will not soon forget this type of pain. It is immediate, painfully so, it will literally take your breath away; you may feel faint and have to lay down with your feet above your head. It feels like something has been broken, which it has.

If this injury is really serious, you will be unable to continue and probably will be seeking medical attention in a very short order to get it fixed.

In some cases, depending on the degree of injury, these take up to six months to recover from. This is a long time away from heavy lifting.

The other pain comes from fatigue. This is common with new lifters, those unaccustomed to the rigors of lifting and to the byproducts that show up in the blood stream during a moderate to strenuous lifting session.

An able coach modifies the workouts for these new trainees. These changes to their workout helps mitigate the after effects of the session and makes them less intense afterwards.

Recap

Pain of injury

Pain, from an injury, sets serious limitations on the ability to produce maximum effort or continue to lift heavy. This is a natural response from the body telling us that something is seriously wrong and whatever caused it must immediately cease. It is a strong signal that something is being damaged or soon will be damaged if the activity continues further.

Do not ignore this warning from your body because by doing so you risk potentially serious repercussions. No pain, no gain has no place in today’s lifting environment. Stop doing whatever is causing this pain from occurring or you will pay the price.

Pain of effort

Now I am not belittling anyone who is suffering from the pain of effort, as it can be real to them at the time. However, experience tells us that soon the body becomes accustomed to this type of pain and it begins to use it as a guide to the amount of effort going into the session.

This type of pain refers to each individual’s ability to tolerate exercise and the discomforts arising from doing the exercise or exercises. It is used consistently in monitoring the intensity of cardiovascular exercise. A prime example is working out in the target heart rate zone for X amount of minute’s per day.

This same type of rating scale can also be applied to endurance or strength training efforts.