No pain, no gain is the old saying as far as athletic training goes. Hurt after your workout? Yeah. It comes with the territory. But there are different kinds of pain, and ignoring pain is not the best idea.

Much of the pain associated with working out is due to the fibers in the muscles being torn and damaged–this is better than it sounds, because when the fibers heal, the muscles will be stronger. And as you might expect, how sore you are–how much pain you’re in–is a result of how long and how intensely you’ve been working out.

Pain is also a self-defense mechanism–it’s your body telling you, “Hey, stop, this is causing some damage.” That is, in part, definitely true–damage is being caused–but the difficulty comes in determining if you really would be best served by stopping.

For instance, when running, I experience the most pain of any of my exercises. Part of this could be psychological–since I don’t like running, I don’t want to do it. However, some of this pain is definitely real–my shins hurt, my knees hurt, I’m breathing hard. This pain tends to pass after I’m warmed up a bit–but it’s not fun while it lasts.

However, there are other times I’m in “real” pain–pain that doesn’t go away after a few more minutes of running. For me, that’s often my illiotibial band in my left knee; I have illiotibial band syndrome, or ITBS. It’s what I call “real” pain–the kind of pain that can get me to stop working out. I just about never feel it cycling, but I do feel it running if I push hard–and this week I ran hard up some hills in the heat. The other pain that I feel, while “real”, is usually pretty quick passing–those are cramps.

My ITB pain was part of my Thursday routine I call “Triple Workout Thursday”–usually a bike ride, a run, and a swim. I ran about two and a half miles–not very far. However, it came after an hour on the bike in the heat and was much hillier than my usual routine. Toward the end, I started to feel the pain in my left knee, but I was close to done, so I pushed through the pain and finished.

I don’t know if that was a mistake or not. I did have a feeling of accomplishment–at that point I had finished my second of three workouts, both of which had been relatively tough–and went onto the third. But swimming, while easy on the joints, is not just my weak spot in training but was also my downfall this particular night. Not only did my ITB bother me, I was plagued with cramps in my right calf and both feet as well as being plagued by the ITB pain in my left knee.

And I have the beginnings of a blister under my right foot, which is something that will require special attention in this blog later.

Pain is sometimes an indication to stop–and sometimes it’s more than that, it’s a demand. Be careful with pain–it’s your body talking to you! If you don’t listen well, you may end up with permanent injuries, but if you stop too often, you won’t improve. It’s a tough balance–no pain, no gain, but too much pain can cost you.