Is “No Pain, No Gain” a Myth or a Fact?

July 21, 2024

by Cathe Friedrich

How many times have you heard the phrase “no pain, no gain?” But is there any truth to this adage and do you really have to work to push yourself to the point of discomfort to make fitness gains?

First, understand that all pain is not created equal. The burning sensation you feel in your muscles during an intense workout is different from the sharp, acute pain that you experience when you strain or sprain a muscle. The burning muscles you experience during a lifting session, called “the burn,” is synonymous with the buildup of metabolites, like lactic acid, and isn’t harmful. It’s a sign that you’re pushing your muscles hard enough to enter the anaerobic zone.

The idea that you must work out to the point of pain or discomfort to make fitness gains is oversimplified. Plus, it’s risky! If you push yourself to the point of pain, you’ll end up injured or exhausted and unable to work out. On the plus side, research shows that exercise helps reduce the perception of pain and has positive effects on mental health. In fact, staying physically active helps with managing chronic pain conditions like fibromyalgia and low back pain.

Keep the intensity of your workouts balanced. Find a “sweet spot” between challenge and comfort. The secret to building strength and hypertrophying your muscles is to stimulate them without enough force to encourage them to adapt without causing injury. Also, increase the challenge in a controlled manner over time to keep your muscles adapting and growing. This concept is known as progressive overload or optimal loading. What you don’t want to do is push too hard and fast and risk injury or burnout.

The Phenomenon of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS)

A little discomfort is part of the muscle growth process. When you begin training and your muscles aren’t used to working against resistance, expect muscle soreness 24 to 48 hours afterward. This phenomenon of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) comes from microtrauma to your muscles and surrounding connective tissues. It’s this low-grade trauma that leads to muscle repair, hypertrophy, and strength gains.

DOMS is more common when you do eccentric exercises, movements where you lengthen your muscles against resistance, like walking downhill or lowering a weight. However, you can’t judge the effectiveness of a workout based on how sore you are. Once your muscles adapt to the challenges of working out, you won’t have soreness after your workouts, until you increase the challenge again.

All in all, research doesn’t support the idea that you need to push yourself to the point of discomfort to make fitness gains. But there is evidence that you need to fatigue the muscles you’re working to cause them to adapt and grow.

The last few reps of a set are crucial for muscle development. Reps in reserve (RIR) is a way to know how many repetitions you can perform before reaching failure. For example, if you cut a set short with 2 RIR, you could have completed two more repetitions using decent form. You can use RIR to fine-tune your workouts, fatigue the muscles you’re working, and manage volume and intensity, while reducing the risk of overtraining or pushing too hard.

When you fatigue the muscles, you get these benefits that trigger muscle growth and strength gains:

Muscle fiber recruitment: You recruit more muscle fibers to maintain force production, triggering more comprehensive muscle engagement.
Metabolic stress: Fatigue causes metabolic byproducts to accumulate, which can stimulate muscle protein synthesis and hypertrophy.
Hormonal response: Moderate fatigue triggers the release of growth hormones and testosterone, which support muscle repair and growth.
Gene expression: Muscle fatigue activates genes associated with muscle growth and adaptation.
Mitochondrial biogenesis: Regular, moderate fatigue can increase the number and efficiency of mitochondria in muscle cells, improving endurance.

To get the benefits without pushing too hard, use RIR to find your sweet spot and gradually advance your workouts using progressive overload, but don’t overreach or overtrain to the point of pain or exhaustion.

Pain Management Through Exercise

There’s another interesting fact about exercise and pain. Moving your body can help you manage pain of all types better. When you launch into a heart-pumping workout, you produce endorphins, your body’s natural pain relievers. Plus, when you strength train, you increase the thickness of your muscles for greater joint support, so you’re protecting them against painful injuries. Regular exercise can also help you manage joint conditions, like arthritis.

Regular physical activity can even help you better manage the pain of exercise itself. Studies show that working out changes the way your brain processes pain signals and how you manage stress. Scientists talk about a phenomenon called exercise-induced hypoalgesia (EIH) where exercise turns on pain-blocking mechanisms that help you better deal with pain itself. Endorphins and other brain chemicals play a role in this phenomenon.

Conclusion

You don’t have to exercise to the point of pain to make gains. The goal should be to fatigue your muscles, but not to push to the point of pain. Use good form, RIR, and progressive overload to build upon your workouts over time and keep making gains. By approaching exercise with mindfulness and respect for your body’s signals, you can reap the many benefits of physical activity while minimizing the risk of injury or burnout. And don’t forget that you’ll become better at dealing with the discomfort of exercise and it will help you deal with chronic pain due to back strains and other phenomena, like fibromyalgia.

References:

Lima LV, Abner TSS, Sluka KA. Does exercise increase or decrease pain? Central mechanisms underlying these two phenomena. J Physiol. 2017 Jul 1;595(13):4141-4150. doi: 10.1113/JP273355. Epub 2017 May 26. PMID: 28369946; PMCID: PMC5491894.
“Exercise and Activity in Pain Management,” 2023. https://www.physio-pedia.com/Exercise_and_Activity_in_Pain_Management.
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Kenta Wakaizumi, Yuta Shinohara, Morihiko Kawate, Ko Matsudaira, Hiroyuki Oka, Keiko Yamada, Rami Jabakhanji, and Marwan N Baliki. “Exercise Effect on Pain Is Associated with Negative and Positive Affective Components: A Large-Scale Internet-Based Cross-Sectional Study in Japan.” Scientific Reports 14, no. 1 (April 1, 2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-58340-z.
Naugle, Kelly M, Roger B Fillingim, and Joseph L Riley. 2012. “A Meta-Analytic Review of the Hypoalgesic Effects of Exercise.” the Journal of Pain/Journal of Pain 13 (12): 1139– https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpain.2012.09.006.
“Progressive Overload Explained: Grow Muscle & Strength Today – NASM.” https://blog.nasm.org/progressive-overload-explained.
“Fibromyalgia: Exercise helps — here’s how to start.” 13 Oct. 2020, https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/fibromyalgia-exercise-helps-heres-how-to-start-2020101321153.
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