How Should You Exercise With Pain?
Specific, practical, and doable approaches from a physical therapist
If you’ve ever grappled with chronic pain, the idea of exercising might seem daunting. How can you exercise if it hurts simply bending over, getting out of a chair, or carrying groceries in from the car?
It’s a fair question and one I have been asked by many of my physical therapy patients. Fortunately, exercise can help reduce pain. In a 2024 narrative review published in the journal Healthcare, the research team sheds light on a crucial link between specific exercise strategies and reducing pain intensity over time.
Exercise can provide immediate pain relief by influencing hormones and the nervous system. Exercise can cause an immediate reduction in pain sensitivity and severity, as outlined in a 2019 review paper in The Journal of Pain. That’s great, but what if you can’t exercise because of the pain? Furthermore, exercise can worsen pain. This is all true, so let me help you navigate that challenge.
Finding the right type of exercise
The phrase “no pain, no gain” is nonsense and does not apply to actual musculoskeletal pain. It’s fine for muscle burn discomfort during the final reps of a lifting set or the end of an exhausting run, but the…
