Stop doing whatever hurts—but keep playing

I get questions like these ones all the time: 

• Every time I ski, my knee hurts. What should I do?

• Every time I rock climb, my shoulder hurts. What should I do? 

• Every time I bench press, I get pain in my elbow. What should I do? 

My answer: stop doing whatever hurts.

Your nervous system operates on positive feedback loops. Put pain in, you get pain out. Put healthy, pain-free movement into a joint, and eventually, that joint will stop hurting when you ski, climb, or bench. Pain trains your muscle tissue and nerves to create more tension and guard the joint more aggressively, which leads to even more pain. 

So, how do you overcome joint pain? I’ll share an example: 

In February 2023, I strained my MCL—and kept skiing. It was a record-breaking season with 900+ inches of powder in the Wasatch, and I didn’t want to miss out. Over the next two weeks, the knee pain got worse. It felt like I would blow out my knee if I kept skiing. 

Here’s what I did, and what I recommend you try in similar situations:

• Stop skiing/climbing/benching or doing whatever hurts.

• Stop checking to see if it still hurts. Finding movements and positions that are painful reinforces the feedback loop. Pain in, pain out. 

• If possible, do your sport in ways that don’t hurt. Skiing powder was painful for me, but skiing groomers was fine.  

• Spend more time on activities that don’t hurt. Rock climbing didn’t hurt my knee, so I climbed more and spent more time conditioning on a rower and stationary bike. 

• Train the problem joint in ways that don’t hurt. Squats, leg extensions, and hamstring curls hurt, but lunges and step-ups didn’t, so I did those.       

• Train the rest of your body. When you return to sport, you want to be as fit and resilient as possible. 

• Don’t be a degenerate. Dial back the booze, partying, candy, junk food, and anything else that causes inflammation. Drink plenty of water, consume lots of protein, and get good sleep.

By the end of February, I was back to skiing powder without any pain.

The more you do to condition and train the muscles around the problem joint—without causing pain—the faster it will heal! 

Your joint probably will stop hurting if you spend a few weeks on the couch. But you’ll return to sport in a deconditioned state, which means your tissue won’t be as resilient, which means you’ll be more susceptible to injury. 

If you haven’t found a way to a play and train without pain, book time with us. We’ll find a way.

-Ben