Training Around Minor Injuries: How to Make Progress with Minimal Risk

Training around minor injuries is a real and pertinent issue for all of us at some point or another.

Whether you wake up one morning with a crick in your neck or you twist your ankle while running, learning to train with or around limitations is a skill that can be learned.

Key Points:

• How to Define ‘Minor’ – the criteria to distinguish what’s “minor”
• Why It’s Important to Keep Moving – what the body needs to heal correctly
• Know Thyself – the ability to assess your needs and tendencies is invaluable
• How to Continue Training – the smart way to adjust your focus to continue training in a productive way
• Reading Your Internal Barometer – learning to track and trust your subjective experience for longevity and autonomy

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How to Define ‘Minor’

One of the most important things to set as context is: what is a minor injury?

People have different ideas around this, so it’s worth setting some basic terms. What separates a minor injury from an inconvenience, soreness, or something more serious?

This distinction depends a lot on background and personal experience.

There’s the old sports mentality of “Are you injured, or are you just hurt?” That kind of thinking has led to a lot of bad habits—pushing through pain when you shouldn’t, ignoring what your body is telling you—but there’s a small kernel of truth buried in it.

Pain is complex.

It’s not just about how bad it hurts in the moment but also how long it lasts and whether it stops you from doing what you need to do.

For example, we’ve all stubbed a toe or banged an elbow so hard that it feels like the worst pain ever. But a few minutes later, it subsides, and you move on. Conversely, some injuries feel manageable at first but get worse over the next few hours or days.

The severity of pain matters, but the duration and its impact on daily life are just as crucial.

If an injury lingers for weeks or affects your ability to perform basic tasks—walking, carrying groceries, getting dressed—then it’s not so minor. Another critical consideration is whether there’s a risk of making it worse.

Some injuries can be worked around without much consequence, while others, if ignored, can turn into bigger problems down the line.

So, defining a minor injury comes down to a few key questions:

• How severe is the pain, and how long does it last?
• Does it significantly limit your ability to function?
• Could continuing to train make it worse?

Once you answer these, you can start making smarter decisions about how to train through it.

Why It’s Important to Keep Moving

A lot of people, when faced with an injury, default to stopping everything. But movement is a critical part of the healing process.

That doesn’t mean ignoring the injury and pushing through, but rather finding ways to stay active that support recovery.

Physiologically, the body heals better with movement. Research has shown that complete rest can actually delay healing because the body needs circulation, controlled stress, and mobility to recover properly. If you just stop everything, you risk stiffness, scar tissue buildup, and even chronic pain patterns developing.

Mentally, stopping entirely can be even worse. Training isn’t just about physical progress—it’s about habit, momentum, and a sense of identity.

If you suddenly halt everything, the psychological impact can be significant. You feel stagnant, lose motivation, and often struggle to get back into a rhythm once you’re “healed.”

Instead, the goal is modifying, not pausing. Keep moving in ways that don’t aggravate the injury.

If you hurt your ankle, you can focus on upper body and core work. If your shoulder is messed up, you can do lower body and mobility drills.

The key is staying engaged with movement, even if it looks different from what you originally planned.

Know Thyself: Understanding Your Training Tendencies

A big part of training around injuries is knowing your own tendencies.

Some people, when they get hurt, shut down completely and wait until everything is “perfect” before starting again. Others fall into the opposite trap—pushing through and pretending the injury doesn’t exist, often making it worse.

If you’re someone who tends to stop everything at the first sign of discomfort, you likely need a push to stay active in a modified way. If you’re someone who has a history of pushing too hard, you probably need to learn how to ease off before a minor issue turns into a major one.

Training through injury isn’t about proving toughness or babying yourself—it’s about being smart.

It’s about making decisions based on long-term health and performance, not short-term frustration.

How to Continue Training (The Smart Way)

The right approach to training around injuries depends on what the injury is, but there are some guiding principles that apply to almost any situation:

Don’t Just Shift the Load Elsewhere Mindlessly

A common mistake is thinking, “I can’t do squats, so I’ll just do a ton of upper body work.” That might be fine in some cases, but if the injury affects how you move, suddenly overloading another part of your body without thinking it through can cause compensation injuries.

Focus on Different Attributes

If you can’t do your normal strength work, maybe this is a chance to work on flexibility or motor control. If high-intensity training isn’t an option, this might be a good time to emphasize skill work or aerobic conditioning.

Use Movement as a Diagnostic

Movement itself can tell you a lot about where your limits are. A structured way to test is:

• Move in a pain-free range first.
• Gradually increase intensity or complexity.
• Pay attention to how it feels afterward—does it flare up later?

Keep Progress in Perspective

It’s easy to get frustrated when an injury derails your original plan, but progress isn’t just about what’s on the spreadsheet.

Training smarter through injuries is a skill in itself, and maintaining consistency, even in a modified way, keeps you on track for long-term success.

Learning to Read Your Internal Barometer

At the end of the day, training around injuries requires learning to read your own body.

Most of us want a clear-cut formula—“Do this, don’t do that”—but pain, recovery, and adaptation are all highly individual.

GMB emphasizes self-assessment and auto-regulation for this reason. Instead of following a rigid plan, learn to judge things based on your own quality of movement, exertion level, and recovery response.

You don’t need a therapist or coach to tell you when something isn’t right—you just need to pay attention and make adjustments accordingly.

The ultimate goal? Physical autonomy.

Being able to navigate injuries, modify your training, and continue progressing without needing someone to tell you what to do. It’s about taking ownership of your own body and making decisions that serve your long-term health.

So stay engaged, stay adaptable, and keep moving—intelligently.

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