Description
"If you're in pain...Just get stronger."
The most parroted piece of advice in rehab on socials right now.
PTs. Chiros. Personal trainers. Coaches. Doctors.
Every corner of fitness social media are all apparently rehab experts now.
And none of them are wrong that strength matters.
But "just get stronger" isn't a rehab plan.
It's a bumper sticker.
A marketing slogan.
A way for online trainers to convince you all you need is a basic strength program...
More importantly, this slogan completely fails to to ask the contextual questions that are vital when it comes to coaching people in pain, or through injuries/surgery, using movement as the modality.
What makes it better? Worse?
Intermittent or constant pain?
Worse with a specific movement, lift, or athletic skill (throwing, kicking, swimming)
What else has the injury affected? Mindset? Confidence?
Strength is a physical capacity.
Pain is not simply a deficit of physical capacity.
That's the assumption "just get stronger" inherently makes...
Someone can be genuinely strong and still have a knee, shoulder, or back that flares in response to load and keeps them stuck...
It's the context in which that strength is being applied...
What specifically are the variables in this person's pain equation?
Two decades of pain neuroscience research have established clearly that pain is influenced by far more than tissue output and strength...
sleep, stress, load management, beliefs, fears, movement patterns, and nervous system sensitization all live in that equation.
A blanket "just get stronger" prescription ignores all that entirely.
Knowing your way around a gym doesn't qualify you to navigate people in pain.
The art of rehab isn't as simple as a bodybuilding split or powerlifting percentages.
It's knowing WHEN to load.
HOW MUCH to load.
WHAT to load.
WHEN to pull back, or push harder...
And what to do when the system says "NOPE!."
"Just get stronger" is a gym bro slogan wearing a clinical badge.
And the patients who follow it without the context often end up chasing strength as a solution, when it was only ever 1 variable in a complex equation.
Now to the comments where the 'experts' tell me i'm wrong...😑