Pain

Pain is not necessarily bad. Pain tells you something is up so that you can start addressing it.

But pain not necessarily being bad does not mean it is not normal. If you are in pain all the time then at least part of your training needs to be spent specifically addressing the pain and the rest of your training should not overly aggravate or prevent corrective efforts from progressing.

Despite what some people might say, pain is not gain. But it can be useful and discomfort is necessary. Pain is at least partly preventing you from making greater physical progress. Health precedes performance. Part of my job is helping you get out of pain and part of that process necessarily means you changing some things. Whatever you are doing or have done has gotten you where you are, and so what we do to get you out of how you are must be different than whatever that is.

If you cannot do basic body weight movements such as planking or doing a push-up or raising your arms overhead or moving something overhead without pain, that is a problem. And while it may or may not interfere with your average everyday needs or even high-performance goals, those movements are important fundamental human movements and lacking them represents a major opportunity for improvement. Achieving the physical capability of being able to do those things and also having the mental freedom that comes from having control of and confidence in your body, is invaluable. Avoiding pain and problems and putting off fixing them does not make them better or go away.

Do you want to look feel move and perform better? Do you want to be stronger and happier and healthier? Do you want to really make all those gains? Let us address what is or might end up paining you, or what is holding you back — the leaking or empty buckets. Addressing those things often means addressing history and habits. And while addressing history and habits can be painful, not doing so keeps you exactly where you are: which is incapable and or in pain. So let's change that.