If something makes you yell “OUCH” then that’s a fair indicator of pain, right? But how can you tell if something is a “good pain”, “bad pain” or just plain old “ugly pain”? How do you know when to just grit your teeth and get on with it, and when to stop and book an appointment with a professional?

The Good

The good pain, or as it’s more commonly called – muscle soreness. The feeling you get in your legs after you’ve been on a long run? Good pain! The feeling you get the day after your first day back in the gym? Good pain! This is a result of microtrauma in the muscles from being pushed to the limit, and the body is in the process of healing itself. This “good pain” can be translated as the body saying “Wow you really pushed it last session didn’t you?! Go easy on me for the next couple of days would you, I’ve got to rebuild now!”

This usually occurs 24-72 hours after exercise, and is also called Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness (DOMS). Gentle movements and stretches can relieve the soreness, so this is encouraged.

The Bad

Bad pain is more sharp and stabby than muscle soreness, and you’ll find that gentle movements and stretches actually worsen the pain. These are the early signs that you’ve got an injury worse than the microtraumas we spoke about earlier. This is your sign to stop any exercise that you’re currently doing and rest! Applying ice to bad pain will help to reduce any inflammation present and numb the pain slightly, but you should be look to get yourself booked in with a health professional pretty sharpish before bad turns to ugly…

The Ugly

Nobody wants to be dealing with ugly pain, do they? If you ever feel something “just go” For example, any type of click, crack, pop or rip that is then followed with pain or swelling, this is what we call The Ugly pain. I don’t need to tell you to stop what you’re doing, because you’d have already stopped, you’ve probably already let out several expletives and you probably aren’t turning to this blog for advice on what to do next!

This ugly pain isn’t always avoidable, but you can avoid the bad pain turning to ugly pain by simply stopping what you’re doing and seeing a professional. The “No pain, no gain” motto simply doesn’t work at all here I’m afraid.