The Truth About Training Through Aches and Pains

You wake up with a stiff knee. Or maybe your shoulder feels cranky after a night on the sofa. The instinctive thought is, “Better skip the gym today — I don’t want to make it worse.”

It’s understandable. We’ve been trained to treat pain as a stop sign. But here’s the truth: aches and pains are not only normal, they’re part of the process of being a living, moving body. And for most people, the worst thing they can do is hit the brakes completely.

Why pain scares people off

Part of the problem is that pain gets lumped into one big category: bad. If it hurts, avoid it. If it aches, stop. That’s how many people approach training, and it’s why so many give up before they ever get strong.

But not all pain is created equal. There’s sharp, stabbing pain that makes you wince — that’s your body waving a red flag. But then there’s the dull stiffness in your hips when you stand up, or the cranky shoulder that eases off once you start moving. Those sensations aren’t warnings to quit; they’re signals to adjust.

Barbell Medicine put it brilliantly: pain is information, not a diagnosis. Often the solution isn’t to stop training but to train differently. Lower the load, shorten the range, choose an alternative movement. The point is to keep moving, because motion is usually what helps symptoms settle down.

Rest versus adaptation

Think about what happens if you completely rest a sore joint. At first it feels like relief. But give it a week or two, and the joint feels stiffer, weaker, more fragile. That’s because the body doesn’t preserve capacity — it adapts down when you stop using it.

John Rusin calls this the “pain-free performance” principle: you don’t chase pain, but you also don’t run from it. You find the level where you can still train without making things worse. Maybe your knees complain at deep squats, but a higher box squat feels fine. Maybe overhead pressing irritates your shoulder, but a landmine press feels smooth. These aren’t downgrades; they’re smart swaps that keep the training effect alive.

Mark Rippetoe, in his blunt way, has said much the same: everyone who trains hard will deal with tweaks. The answer isn’t wrapping yourself in bubble wrap; it’s learning to distinguish between pain that means “don’t be stupid” and pain that just means “you’re human.”

The role of strength itself

Here’s the kicker: often, the very thing people avoid — lifting — is the thing that helps most.

Greg Nuckols has pointed out that strength is protective. When muscles are stronger, joints are better supported, connective tissue adapts, and the whole system is more resilient. Training doesn’t guarantee a pain-free life, but it raises your body’s tolerance. You’re less likely to tweak your back lifting a bag of compost if you’ve spent months deadlifting in the gym.

And when pain does show up, it often improves because you’ve been training. That’s not wishful thinking — it’s well documented. Studies on office workers with neck and shoulder pain show that resistance training reduces symptoms and increases work capacity. The stronger group not only hurt less, they could do more before discomfort set in.

Listening without quitting

This doesn’t mean you plough through agony with a stiff upper lip. It means you listen to your body—but with a coach’s ear, not a coward’s. Mike Israetel talks about autoregulation—using effort ratings (RPE) to guide your training. If a weight feels too heavy to handle well, back off. If it feels good, push on. The principle applies just as much to training with aches: adjust the dial rather than turning the machine off completely. Think of it like this: if, when you warm up, things feel better, you’re probably fine to carry on as planned. If things stay the same, the same applies—just carry on with caution. If things feel worse as you warm up, make a change.

Kelly Starrett comes at it from another angle: movement quality. If your shoulder hurts every time you press, maybe the problem isn’t the press itself but how you’re setting up. A small tweak in posture, grip, or range can transform pain into tolerable work. In other words, don’t just abandon the exercise — explore how to do it better.

Beyond the barbell

Aches and pains aren’t only about what happens in the gym, though. What we do outside th gym matter as well - recovery, sleep, and lifestyle are massive factors in how pain is felt. A sore back after a bad night’s sleep feels worse than the same back after eight hours of good sleep. Chronic stress winds pain up; relaxation turns the volume down. Training is one piece of the puzzle, but the environment you create outside the gym is what lets your body adapt.

What progress really looks like

Here’s the bigger picture: most people don’t train because they want a perfect body; they train because they want a better life. And aches are part of that life.

Progress might mean your knees no longer ache on the stairs. It might mean your shoulder twinges less when you reach for the top shelf. It might mean you can play with your grandkids on the floor without worrying if you’ll get back up. Those are milestones every bit as real as adding weight to the bar.

And yes, you’ll still have the occasional niggle. Everyone does. But by training through manageable aches — by adjusting, not quitting — you’ll build a body that’s more capable, not more fragile.

The takeaway

Pain doesn’t mean stop. It means pay attention. Learn to adjust, not abandon. Rest completely only when your body leaves you no choice; otherwise, find the version of training you can do, and stick with it.

Because the truth is this: strength training doesn’t just build muscles. It builds resilience. It teaches you how to keep going when things aren’t perfect, which — if we’re honest — is most of the time.

That’s the real win: not just lifting more weight, but carrying yourself through life with less fear, less fragility, and more confidence that your body will hold up when you need it most.