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How to train with joint pain?

Author: Timko Ilya - master of the whole project and fitness trainer.
2014-12-20

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In this article, I will provide you with a general algorithm of actions for joint pain. Moreover, it doesn’t matter which joint hurts or what the cause of the pain is. This information will help you in any case. This is, in a way, a universal remedy for your joints.

But first, let’s talk about where pain comes from. After all, pain is just a symptom. The causes of joint pain can be relatively harmless or very serious.

Causes of Joint Pain

In the overwhelming majority of cases, if there is pain, it means there is inflammation of some part of the joint. This could be inflammation of the joint itself, or the tendon near the joint, or the muscle near the joint. But pain is not the cause, it’s a symptom. There can be several causes:

1. Mechanical damage to the joint. This is most commonly found in the knees and vertebrae. For example, osteochondrosis, or herniated intervertebral discs, destruction of the meniscus in the knee joint.

2. Microtraumas of tendons due to excessive loads or incorrect exercise technique. In this case, micro-tears may occur in the tendon. Due to these micro-tears, it starts to become inflamed and hurt.

3. Lack of fluid that lubricates the joint. The less fluid there is, the greater the friction force between the joints. Friction causes inflammation, especially if the loads on the joint are high. With low loads, a lack of lubrication may not be felt.

4. Dislocation of the joint or tendon. In this case, the joint itself or the tendon becomes inflamed. Usually, with a joint dislocation, it is virtually impossible to train. However, when a tendon has moved from its usual place, many continue to train despite the pain.

5. Nerve compression. This occurs, again, due to dislocation of the joint or tendon. Typically, this happens with the spine.

Of course, this is far from an exhaustive list of causes. But these 5 causes cover about 98% of all cases. Also, about 80% of all pain can be attributed to the first and second causes. The most dangerous cause is the first one. Because even if you completely stop exercising, the joint damage will not disappear. A significant portion of such situations requires surgical intervention.

If you experience a dislocation of the joint or tendon, in most cases, an experienced surgeon can correct it quite quickly. In other cases, it is sufficient to reduce the load, and either the problem will go away completely, or the pain will become much weaker.

What to Do About Joint Pain?

Now I will tell you what to do about joint pain. It doesn’t matter what the cause of the pain is; my recommendations will help in any case.

1. Eliminate all exercises that cause pain

Alternatively, you need to significantly reduce the weights in these exercises to the point where pain does not occur. Remember: the more and more often you feel pain, the greater your inflammation will be. Therefore, training "through pain" will only intensify it. On average, the duration of such restrictions is 2 to 4 weeks.

2. Use anti-inflammatory medications

Personally, I use a medication called “Indomethacin.” It's inexpensive and starts working within a day, if not sooner. Indomethacin reduces inflammation, and hence pain. It should only be taken in tablet form. The ointment is practically useless. A sufficient dosage is 2 tablets in the morning and evening (4 tablets a day). It is advisable to use it for about 2 weeks.

You may have other anti-inflammatory medications in your arsenal, but I have chosen this particular one. It is effective in about 80% of cases, inexpensive, available at any pharmacy, and practically has no side effects in practice.

3. Increase the amount of "lubrication" in the joint

Regardless of the cause of your pain, the more your joints are lubricated, the better. There are many ways to improve joint lubrication:

  • Heating knee and elbow pads, etc. When you raise the temperature around the joint, it lubricates better.
  • Heating ointments. The principle of operation is similar to the first method.
  • Warm-up and stretching of joints before training. Spend more time on warming up your sore joint. Thoroughly stretch and warm it up. This will add some lubrication.
  • Medications that retain water in the body. This includes: salt, creatine, flavored anabolic steroids, dexamethasone, etc. I recommend using the last two only in extreme cases and only by experienced athletes.

4. Increase blood supply around the joint

The more blood flows to your sore joint, the faster the healing will occur. In principle, all the methods mentioned in the previous point also contribute to improving blood filling in the joints.

But in addition to this, it is advisable to perform exercises on the sore joint with minimal weight and a large number of repetitions (20 - 30). These exercises should not cause pain but should fatigue the muscles around the joint due to the high number of repetitions. This will improve blood flow around the joint.

Conclusions

1. You need to follow all four recommendations. Moreover, they should be done simultaneously. Only then will the effect be maximum.

2. After you have eliminated the exercises that cause pain, you need to wait until the joint stops hurting. Then wait another week. After that, you can start doing those exercises again, but begin with 50% of your working weights.

3. All the recommendations mentioned above will help with any cause of pain. However, if you have mechanical damage or dislocation of the joint, this is only a temporary solution. In such cases, a visit to the doctor is unavoidable. As soon as you stop following all the recommendations, the pain will return immediately. You wouldn't want to deprive yourself of exercises forever or keep swallowing indomethacin (I don’t recommend using it for more than 2 months), would you?

4. A few words about chondroprotectors: glucosamine, chondroitin, and collagen. All these medications are good for strengthening joints and ligaments, and they should be taken from time to time. But if pain has already occurred, they won’t help. Or at least, they won’t help much.

5. If you do everything as I said, in 70% of cases, the pain will go away completely. In 20% of cases, it will be almost completely gone. In 10% of cases, it will reduce by half. Good luck, and please comment on whether my article helped you or not.

Prevention of Joint Pain

There are sports nutrition products that protect our joints, reduce pain, and slow the wear and tear of joints. If you experience pain or discomfort in any joints, it makes sense to take them. These can be individual substances:

And there are also complex preparations:

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