Push around the pain...

As a physical therapist and avid lifter myself, I'm not an advocate for cranking up the music and just grinding through a workout no matter what you're feeling, especially if it includes feeling pain. We know too much nowadays to train like idiots!

You've probably been here before:

You finally decide to seek help for an ache or pain you've been having for awhile now. You march into your physician's office and explain what's been going on. They ask a few questions. Heck, they might even put their hands on you to test a couple things, but without much hesitation they say that you just need to rest. They recommend taking two weeks off from whatever it is you have been doing and then starting back up.

Unfortunately this is far too common in healthcare when it comes to taking care of active, fit individuals. That's because most healthcare professionals don't know how to handle someone like yourself with a training or sports-related injury.

If you have pain or an injury you've been battling there's a good possibility that you can modify your training in order to keep pushing around that pain and keep making gains. 

My [Enter body part here] hurts, should I still do do XYZ?

I get asked this type of question all the time! The answer typically is yes, as long as it doesn't aggravate that body part. Barring a very serious injury, there's no reason you should completely stop an activity. A good rule of thumb is to keep doing what you can do pain-free!

Sometimes all your painful tissues need is a different variation of an exercise or drill. Lifters and athletes get into grooves and tend to over-do certain movements that they enjoy or are good at. This can lead to overuse injuries. These overuse injuries usually just need a break from that certain movement pattern in order to repair and heal themselves properly.

Here is an example:

You've been doing a barbell overhead press for quite some time and over the past few weeks you've noticed a slowly worsening pain in the top of your shoulder. It's not a debilitating pain, just one you've noticed, but are able to keep training through.

What that slowly worsening pain is is your body trying to tell you that something is breaking down or not working properly. 

Instead of stopping barbell shoulder presses for a couple weeks and then starting back up gradually again like your doctor would tell you to do, what you need to do is change the movement pattern up to take the stress off of those angry tissues and place it somewhere else. That way those angry, irritated tissues have a better chance to heal and recover. 

​You can keep pressing overhead, but you have to find a variation that allows you to do so without that pain you have been noticing with barbell overhead presses. 

​One of my favorite ways to keep training the shoulders when you can't tolerate traditional overhead variations is the Landmine Shoulder Press. This variation of shoulder press provides some inherent stability as well as facilitation of optimal pressing mechanics. A win-win, especially for someone with cranky shoulders.

Here is a video of the setup and execution of the landmine shoulder press:

​If you've been struggling with or limited by shoulder pain recently, give this landmine variation a go for a few weeks.

It may be just what your shoulders are asking for. Heck, it may even be all that you need to get back to more traditional overhead pressing without pain!

​If you've got something that's been bothering you for awhile and after reading this you think you may just need to modify your training, but don't know where to start just leave a comment and I'll send you a couple ideas!