Let Pain Guide You

Pain isn’t bad, it’s one of our wisest and most valuable instruments.

The basic notion; let pain guide you. Pain will help you adjust your form, approach, technique, philosophy, and way of living.

How to discover “good form”

If a certain movement or exercise causes you negative pain, adjust your form until you don’t feel bad pain.

For example:

  1. Back pain when doing conventional deadlift guided me to switch to a sumo stance (much better).
  2. Foot pain (plantar fasciatus) led me to NOT wear shoes with soles. I wear minimalist shoes with 0 padding, and now all my foot pain has gone away (look for “kayk water shoes” on Amazon).
  3. Doing pull-ups with thumbs facing forward, and doing chinups with thumbs facing towards me was causing me elbow pain. I switched to a “neutral grip” and no elbow or joint pain since.
  4. Bench pressing with wide grip caused me shoulder pain. I switched to dumbell press, no pain since then!
  5. Barbell overhead press caused me shoulder pain, switched to dumbell overhead press and no pain since.

Dietary changes

  1. Eating any dairy (cheese, butter, etc) was causing me stomach pain. I stopped all dairy, and no stomach pains since then!
  2. Coconut products, milk, and oil causes me stomach pains and a bit of nausea. Now I avoid coconut products for myself.
  3. Coffee after dinner caused me insomnia, headaches, pain. No more coffee or caffeine/stimulants after dinner anymore, and no more pain.