The Pain Traffic Light
Should I work through the pain? Should I just rest? Should I avoid this exercise? It is safe for me to exercise with pain? We hear these questions all the time!
The traffic light analogy is something we use often with clients. The goal is to get us to start listening to our body, so that we aren’t prolonging our rehabilitation by under or overloading. However, like anything, it is not perfect and guidance by a rehabilitation professional is always gold standard.
The Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS) is used in this analogy. 0 being no pain. 10 being the worst pain you’ve ever had (you’d be going to the emergency room). See this article for more details on interpreting the NPRS.
GREEN= Go! (0-3/10). We have 0-3/10 pain OR pain does not change
Green means GO! 0-3/10 would be described more as discomfort or “feels different”. If pain stays <4/10 both during and after, this is a great exercise or activity at this time in your rehabilitation.
YELLOW= be cautious/ slow down (4-6/10). We hit a 4-6/10 OR pain starts to increase.
When we experience higher levels of pain, we do not need to immediately stop in our tracks. Pain does not equal tissue damage, but rather is our brain communicating changes. If you were running, you may ease your pace, do intervals, or walk out the remainder of your run. If you were strength training, you may finish the set but look to change tempo/ weight/ or reps moving into your subsequent sets.
RED= stop (7+/10). We hit 7+/10 OR pain significantly worsens
No need to panic, but time to stop! Even at this level of pain, it does not mean you’ve created more tissue damage, but you could if you continue. This is your brain telling you that you are potentially at a tissue’s threshold or the environment is suboptimal. We want to listen to this, and either deload the activity, change mode of activity, or enter a rest phase. If you hit these pain levels, don’t beat yourself up, just keep in mind what brought you to that point and aim to build back up to it slowly over time, allowing your body to adapt.
During your first bouts of activity after injury, I typically recommend staying in the GREEN zone so you can see how you feel later that day, and especially the next day. If symptoms do not significantly increase, or resolve within 24 hours, that’s a great indicator that you could push it harder in your subsequent workouts!
Remember pain is complex and multi-factoral so please don’t forget the impacts sleep, stress, diet, and hydration can have on it!
We hope this is helpful as you rehabilitate future injuries! But always remember your rehabilitation specialists are experts at guiding you through injury and should be consulted if possible.
