When to Push Through Workout Pain — And When to Stop

You’ve definitely felt it before: that mid-sprint twinge in your calf, the ache in your shoulders after a heavy lift, the stiffness in your elbow the day after tossing a ball around. Not quite an injury, not quite nothing.

Pain is an inevitable, unavoidable component of exercise. As we age, it becomes an ever-more familiar companion — and a trickier one to interpret. When does discomfort signal progress or grit, and when is it a warning bell?

We asked sports scientists, rehab specialists and top trainers to weigh in. Their consensus? Yes, you can push through some pain, but only if you know what kind, when to do it and why it’s happening. That kind of awareness is just as important as managing your workouts, nutrition and recovery.

A Primer on Pain

Whether you go for a run or lift some weights, it’s probably going to hurt. Exertion generally leads to perceived pain. But why? What’s actually going on? Nick Cowan, an osteopath and running rehab specialist at Injury Rehab in London, points to micro-traumas in our muscle tissues and the resulting inflammatory processes as the main cause of exercise-related pain.

“Over time, this process gives way to delayed onset muscle soreness, or DOMS,” he says. “Depending on recovery methods and your overall health and fitness, this process can vary in length over a few days or longer.”

Low-level pain while working out isn’t something to worry about; if you’re lifting twice your bodyweight, it’s going to feel difficult. But a sharp or sudden pain — like a jolt in your hamstring when playing soccer — means it’s time to stop.

“Pain is a normal part of physical activity,” says Craig Carroll, osteopath and founder of Mayfair’s Injury Coach clinic. “Knowing when it’s simply discomfort and when it signals an injury is key.”

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Is Pain Just in My Head?

Tough guys like to say things like “pain is temporary” and “pain is all in your head” — and in some ways, that’s true. But are maxims like this actually helpful?

“In basic terms, pain is the body’s signal to ease off,” says Cowan. “However, this can be ‘overridden’ through mental focus, and relying on past experience.” In other words, if you’ve run a marathon before, you know there’s a good chance that you can do it again.

“This still depends on physical preparation, but mental strength can be a powerful motivator in ignoring the pain,” says Cowan. “Especially when the cause of pain is nothing more than a byproduct of exertion.”

The dopamine released during exercise — like the runner’s high — can also help mask pain until we’ve completed a task. You might go rock climbing with an awful headache, only to find it disappears while you’re on the crag, for example.

When Is It Okay to Push Through Pain?

It’s up to you. If your leg falters 10 miles into a half-marathon, you may decide to carry on, knowing that you’ll probably damage your muscles and not be able to run for a while afterwards. It’s a risk-reward calculation: say the same injury occurs two miles in, you might decide to bow out, saving your health and strength for the next run, the next race.

When it comes to overdoing it, scientists used to think that our brains had a built-in handbrake of sorts that could stop us going too far. Today, Cowan says that “questions relating to perception of effort and potential motivation are the central determinants of task engagement, with people consciously deciding how much or how little effort to apply based on a number of considerations.”

In short, our ability to adapt to exercise stressors are dictated by training methods, nutrition and stress-level variables — all of which, again, is entirely individual.

If you’re trying a new sport, or returning to the gym after time off, you may be more susceptible to aches and pains, even if you’ve been exercising for years. Ultimately, how you feel when exercising is subjective, so it’s best to listen to yourself and set firm limits for your body.

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What Can I Do to Mitigate My Chances of Injury?

Prehab is an important element here. “It’s the most overused question in the physical therapist clinic room…’Do you warm up?’” says Cowan.

A good warm-up mimics the movement patterns of the sport you’re about to do, getting muscles and joints lubricated, and blood flowing freely so that oxygen and nutrients can be efficiently delivered as required. Crucially, not all warm-ups are created equal.

“Static stretches will do little to create a warm-up process, while dynamic stretching will provide more parallels to what is to be undertaken and therefore reduce the chance of injury,” Cowan explains.

He adds that all prehab should include elements of strength and conditioning. “Creating a stronger frame will strengthen injury prevention,” he says.

As for recovery, Sergii Putsov, head of sport science at Torokhtiy Weightlifting, recommends anti-inflammatory gels to help reduce localized, inevitable inflammations. Apply two to three times per day, or as needed. “Sleep is also a strong foundation for recovery,” he says. “This is when the body clears inflammatory byproducts and releases growth hormones.”

When Should I Stop Exercising?

You’ve paid attention to recovery, you’re properly warmed up and feeling good, and accepting that the exercise you’re about to do will likely bring pain, but you’ll have the mental strength to push through.

In other words, you’re all set. So, when it really comes down to it, at what pain point should you stop exercising? Carroll, the osteopath, has a handy traffic light system for quantifying intense pain, where a 3 out of 10 is considered safe to continue. Anything over a 7 out of 10? You should stop immediately. The middle range is where you’ll need to know your limits and make a judgement call.

If you’re dealing with persistent pain — say tennis elbow, for over two weeks — it’s time to seek professional help and maybe take time off. To ignore stubborn or serious pain and carry on not only puts your fitness and health at risk, it’s false economy. Yes, you might finish today, but you’ll likely sideline yourself for weeks or months to come. In some instances, like in the world of heavy lifting, ignoring pain can lead to serious problems, including accidents and even paralysis.

Whatever your challenge, the key is to take your ego out of it. Yes, it would be nice to push through and complete your goal. But is doing so really worth putting your health at risk? The better plan of attack is actually to retreat — for now, at least. To rest up, recover and fight another day.