Why Strength Training Is Overrated for Pain Relief
You’ve probably heard it before:
“You’re in pain because you’re weak. Get stronger, and the pain will go away.”
It sounds logical—but for many people, it simply doesn’t work.
They get stronger… yet the pain stays. Sometimes, it gets worse.
Here’s the better explanation:
Pain isn’t just about weakness. It’s a warning.
It’s your body’s way of saying:
“This cup is getting full.”
In Bud Craig’s model of homeostasis, pain is a danger signal—not damage.
It tells you that your system is overloaded, like water spilling from a cup that’s too full.
And strength training?
It’s adding more load to that cup. If your system can’t drain or adapt fast enough, it overflows—and pain is the result.
Being Strong Doesn’t Make the Cup Bigger
Top athletes can squat 200kg—and still deal with back pain.
Lifters, weekend warriors, even older adults on strength programs often feel tight, sore, or fragile.
So clearly, strength alone isn’t the answer.
If your body can’t manage the load, more strength just adds more pressure.
What matters more is how efficiently your cup can drain, recover, and adapt—not just how much you can pour in.
What Actually Helps: Build a Bigger Cup
If your goal is lasting relief and long-term resilience, focus on building capacity—not just strength.
That means training your body to handle life with more ease and less overflow.
Here are 5 ways to do that:
Build your aerobic engine.
Long, low-intensity movement (walking, slow jogging, cycling) helps improve blood flow, clears waste, and gives your system space to recover.Add variety to your movement.
If you only move in one way (like lifting in straight lines), your body gets stiff and narrow in how it adapts. Rolling, crawling, twisting, and flowing open up more options.Move more often, not just harder.
Gentle movement throughout the day clears the cup. It keeps your system flowing, instead of building up pressure all at once.Prioritize recovery.
Sleep, hydration, rest, and breathing are the drainage system. Without them, the cup fills up faster, no matter how strong you are.Train with awareness, not just effort.
Instead of pushing through pain, listen to it. Pain isn’t weakness—it’s your body asking for a better strategy.
Final Thought: Strength Isn’t the Goal—Capacity Is
Strength isn’t bad.
It’s just one tool—and if you use it too soon, or too often, it fills your cup without building the drainage system.
Pain doesn’t mean you’re broken.
It means your body is protecting you from overflow.
So instead of asking:
“How do I get stronger?”
Start asking:
“How do I build a system that can handle more, with less pain?”
That’s the shift—from overload to capacity, from control to flow, from pain to power.