Athletic intelligence & Pain - What to do?

You've trained.

You've trained well, regularly and consistently. 

Hard at times, and trained smarter more often.

You've listened to your body. You've heard what it's had to say. 

Intelligently, you've worked your way through some changes, a few days off here-and-there, and some shorter and slower sessions, massage, mobility and strength training designed specifically for you.

Yet some persists. You're a little stiffer each morning, and you're taking longer to warm up?

What do you do?

Doing something is key. Exactly what you do really depends upon what you hear. Your athletic intelligence, experience, diligence and pride will impact to.

Your coach and/or health-professional should be your best (first) guides. See them.

 Signs and symptoms associated with acute, unusual and sudden pain and/or your health must be heeded. Stop what you’re doing, and seek guidance from your coach, an experienced and trusted athlete, and see your or health-care professional.

Reduce your overall training load, and intensity for a few days or take some days off for minor changes to your fatigue or energy levels, a cold (above the shoulders), persistent muscles soreness and stiffness. Get some more sleep and eat well. Consider the impact of other loads/stressors too as your body’s ability to adapt to training is dependent upon more than just your training.

Pain, stiffness and swelling that persist or are having a greater impact first thing in the morning, during warm-up or after you cool-down must be heard. These are often debilitating injuries waiting to happen, and could manifest into weeks or months off training, or surgery.

Your true limits:

Remember, successful training is about maximizing your adaptations so that you can perform at higher levels.  It’s not about maximizing training numbers.

Forcing your body at times is a part of hard-training. Smart training, and intelligent athletes don’t try and force more than they can handle. Poor results, fatigue and pain should not be cues to train harder.

Ignoring your body’s signs and symptoms and aimlessly pushing on under the guise of ‘mental toughness’, to rack-up-the-numbers or forge a new training-streak, can cause small, easily remedied problems to become debilitating. Obsession and smarts aren’t the same thing

True, the occasional minor injury is associated with pushing yourself and challenging your limits. Pete Ffitzinger once said, ‘learning to listen to your body and having the confidence and trust in yourself doesn’t imply a lack of toughness, but a willingness to find your true physical limits…injuries aren’t a badge of honor’.

It is rare that you don't hear 'anything'. No news is often good news, and silence often says much.

That said, “avoidance is rarely a path to success”. Avoiding training gets you nowhere, avoiding pain gets you less-where!