Propel Fitness Journal, Issue 003
Injuries Happen—But They Don’t Define You
Getting injured can feel like hitting a wall. Suddenly, the progress you’ve been making feels like it’s slipping away, and you’re left wondering if you’ll ever get back to where you were.
Here’s the thing: you’re stronger than you think.
An injury might change how you train in the short-term, but it doesn’t take away your ability to improve, adapt, and keep moving forward. By learning how to effectively overcome your injury, you’ll also learn a whole new set of strategies & skills to make you even more resilient than before.
There’s Always Something You Can Do
Let’s say you’ve sprained your ankle. That doesn’t mean your workouts are over—it just means they’ll look a little different. You can still make some serious upper body gains with seated exercises like presses and rows. You can even continue to improve your leg strength with seated lower body work, like leg extensions, where the foot isn’t stressed at all.
The key? Focus on what you can control instead of what you can’t.
I’ve worked with countless clients who thought an injury meant they had to stop physical activity completely. Throughout 15 years of coaching, I’ve never once come across a situation where there wasn’t some form of exercise that could be done.
Once we shifted the focus to what was still possible, they realized their strength wasn’t limited to a single body part—it was about their mindset and commitment to the process.
Your Body Is Designed to Heal
Here’s the best part: your body is adaptable.
The vast majority of injuries heal on their own within 2-6 weeks. Yes, even if you don’t see a physio. We’re not magic—we just guide you along the path your body is already traveling.
The human body is built to recover, adapt, and come back stronger. Injuries are temporary, but your strength—both physical and mental—will contribute immensely to returning you back to your baseline (and beyond).
Pain Doesn’t Always Mean Damage
Something else that most people don’t realize: after an injury, a big part of the pain you feel isn’t from ongoing damage—it’s from your brain’s protective signals.
Think of pain like a smoke alarm. When you burn toast, the alarm goes off just as loudly as it would if your kitchen were on fire. It’s annoying, sure—but it doesn’t mean your house is burning down.
Your body works the same way. Pain is your body’s way of saying, “Hey, let’s be careful here.” But that doesn’t always mean you’re causing more harm by moving. The trick is learning how to move in ways that calm the system down, not set it off.
Traffic Lights — How Much Pain Should I Push Through?
When it comes to navigating pain with activity, the key is to recognize and listen to the signals your body gives you— a traffic light system provides a good framework for making decisions around pushing through pain vs. holding back from pain:
Green Light — 0-3/10: Some degree of pain is okay — it is reasonable to continue the exercise —but it is crucial that any discomfort present is truly tolerable and sustainable.
Yellow Light — 4-5/10: This is a unique situation —sometimes it is reasonable to continue forward at a yellow light, and other times it is better to hit the brakes. You will want to pay attention to (i) does the pain get better, worse, or stay the same with continued repetition, and (ii) how long does it take to settle back down to baseline following the activity? Pain that starts to escalate or takes multiple days to recover from would indicate your body is not yet ready to handle this load, and it’s time to back off or slow down (and consider further use of the strategies in this guide to modify your plan). This is a scenario that may require further information which will be unique to your situation.
Red Light — 6+/10: Sharp, sudden, or drastically increasing pain — this is a signal to stop and reevaluate. It is not going to be advantageous to push through this degree of pain — it will likely result in further irritation of the affected area which will set you back in the long-term.
(0-10, wherein 0 represents “no pain at all”, and 10 represents “the worst pain you could possibly imagine”)*
– Dan
Injured and want to get back to lifting heavy? Grab The Injured Lifter’s Playbook (free), and you’ll get the Propel Fitness Journal in your inbox every Monday.
Want help with your own comeback? Work with me.