How to keep training when something hurts

Something hurts. Maybe it’s your lower back after deadlifts. Maybe it’s a shoulder that’s been grumbling for weeks. Maybe it’s a knee that clicks on deep squats.

The instinct is to stop training entirely. Rest it. Wait until it’s gone. But for most non-acute injuries — the chronic, nagging kind that lifters actually deal with — complete rest is usually the wrong call. You lose fitness, you lose the habit, and the thing that hurt often still hurts when you come back because you didn’t address the underlying problem.

The better approach: train around it.

Training around, not through

There’s an important distinction. Training through pain — ignoring it and doing the same thing that caused it — is stupid. Training around pain — modifying your programme so you keep training without aggravating the problem — is smart.

The principle is simple: if a movement hurts, find a variation that doesn’t.

Common substitutions that work

Lower back pain:

Swap conventional deadlifts for trap bar deadlifts or rack pulls
Swap back squats for front squats or goblet squats (less spinal compression)
Avoid good mornings and heavy RDLs until it settles
Keep the load conservative and the reps higher (sets of 8 instead of sets of 3)

Shoulder pain:

Swap barbell bench for dumbbell bench (more freedom of rotation)
Swap overhead press for landmine press (angled path avoids the impingement zone)
Avoid behind-the-neck anything
Widen or narrow your bench grip — small changes can eliminate the pinch

Knee pain:

Reduce squat depth to where it’s pain-free (parallel is fine, you don’t need ATG)
Swap back squats for box squats (consistent depth, controlled descent)
Avoid leg extensions — they isolate the patellar tendon
Prioritise hamstring work (RDLs, Nordic curls) to balance the joint

Elbow pain:

Switch to neutral grip where possible (hammer curls instead of barbell curls)
Reduce or eliminate skull crushers — they’re notorious for elbow issues
Use an EZ bar instead of straight bar for curls and presses
Lower the volume on pressing movements temporarily

Progression when injured

The normal rule is 2.5kg per session. When you’re working around an injury, that changes:

Hold the weight steady for longer before increasing. Two or three sessions at the same weight instead of one.
Use smaller increments if available. 1.25kg plates exist for a reason.
Prioritise range of motion over load. If you can squat deeper without pain at a lighter weight, that’s more valuable than squatting heavy to a limited depth.

The goal shifts from “add weight every session” to “maintain training consistency while the injury improves.” That’s still progress — it’s just slower.

When to actually stop

Some situations do warrant stopping a movement entirely:

Sharp, acute pain during the lift. Not dull discomfort — sharp. Stop immediately.
Pain that gets worse across sets rather than warming up and fading.
Swelling, bruising, or loss of range of motion. See a physio.
Pain that wakes you up at night. That’s inflammation, not just soreness.

If you’re unsure, err on the side of doing less. You can always add load back next week. You can’t un-tear a tendon.

The long game

Most training injuries are overuse injuries. They happen because something in your programme exceeded your capacity to recover from it — too much volume, too much intensity, too little sleep, or a movement pattern that doesn’t suit your anatomy.

The fix is almost always:

Reduce the aggravating movement
Substitute something similar that doesn’t hurt
Address the underlying cause (usually form, volume, or recovery)
Gradually reintroduce the original movement

This takes weeks, sometimes months. That’s fine. You’re building a body that works for decades, not preparing for a meet next Saturday.

Get a plan that respects your injuries

If you’ve got something you’re working around, Doggins will build a plan that accounts for it. Tell it what hurts, what movements aggravate it, and it’ll substitute exercises and adjust progression automatically. Free, takes two minutes.