Mastering Pain Management with the Traffic Light System

I get asked these questions more than any other:

"How do I know when to push and when to back off?"

"Is it okay to push through pain at all?"

"If I'm feeling pain, does that mean damage is being done?" "How do I know when I'm ready to progress or do a more advanced movement?"

There's no simple, objective answer to any of these, which is why the answer tends to start with the unsatisfying phrase, "It depends."

I've spoken at length before about what pain really means and how it's not always a reliable detector of actual danger.

However, I have developed a system to help clients understand and visualize their pain better. This gives them a system to know what to do and how to proceed safely while still making progress towards their goals.

This system involves a traffic light.

Picture a pain scale numbering 1 to 10 (1 being barely noticeable discomfort to 10 being unbearable pain).

🟢 If your pain is between a 1 to a 4, you're in the green light zone. You're free to continue your activity, as this is an acceptable level of pain to push through.

🟡If your pain is between a 5 to a 7, you're in the yellow light zone. This is where we don't necessarily stop completely, but we proceed with caution, especially if we see the intensity of our pain increasing over time.

🔴If your pain is between an 8 to a 10, you're in the red light zone. This is your sign to stop and back off whatever you're doing. You may need to regress the movement or activity, or substitute it for something that's significantly more tolerable.

Here's another way to look at it if you have trouble putting a subjective number to your pain, or if you've gotten used to your pain, or have a high pain tolerance.

🟢Green light pain is a mild discomfort that won’t cause you to change or compensate in your movement.

🟡Yellow light pain will cause you to instinctively change your movement patterns because of the pain. 

🔴Red light pain will stop you in your tracks and will feel sharp and intense.

A practical example looks like this. Green light pain won’t change how you climb up and down the stairs. Yellow light pain may cause you to go down sideways or hesitate to mitigate the pain. Red light pain will stop you from climbing or will cause sharp, intense pain.

As long as you remain as self-aware as possible about your feelings of pain, this gives you a framework to know whether the activity you're doing is tolerable to your body and whether you should continue, modify, or stop what you're doing.

While resting and recovering is important, finding ways to continue to move and build strength is incredibly beneficial to any pain and injury recovery.

It's a simple system for a complicated process. Pain is multi-factorial, and things other than actual damage can create feelings of pain, but learning how to live with and manage your pain is an invaluable skill.

To your good health,

Coach Stephen

---

Thanks for reading.

P.S.

Whenever you’re ready, here are a few additional ways that I may be able to help you.

Free:

Instagram: @CoachStrumos

*I share tons of bite-sized lessons and tips here

Paid:

1-on-1 Pain Management and Strength Coaching: Apply here