When the grind turns on you and your workouts start to hurt …

You know the rhythm. Wake up, hydrate, warm up, lift, run, stretch, refuel. You’ve carved it into your week like a ritual. You’re not casually “into fitness” — you’ve made training part of your lifestyle. But there’s a peculiar kind of betrayal that can happen to people like you: the very movements that energize and strengthen you can also, over time, start to create wear and tear. It doesn’t start with a big injury. It starts with something small. An ache you ignore. A tightness that used to go away but doesn’t anymore. And then, suddenly, you’re Googling things like “why does my shoulder burn when I bench press?”

This is where repetitive use injuries sneak in.

Why this happens to people who know better
Repetitive use injuries (also called overuse injuries) aren’t typically the result of doing something wrong, they’re often the result of doing something right too many times in a row. They come from consistency without enough variation, intensity without enough recovery, and effort without enough restraint.

Let’s say you love running. You’ve been logging five to six miles, four days a week, for years. You’re not slamming into walls, you’re not overtraining by traditional definitions, but one day your knee says, “Nope.” That’s because every stride has been placing the same micro-stress on the same joint tissues again and again and again. Even perfect form, when used repeatedly in the same pattern, becomes a threat.

It’s the same for lifters who bench every Monday, squat every Tuesday, and deadlift every Friday without rotating grip styles, bar types, rep ranges, or tempos. Muscles may adapt well, but tendons, ligaments, and joint cartilage aren’t as quick to recover — and they don’t like monotony.

What to do when it happens anyway
Start by gauging the severity. If there’s pain at rest, swelling, impaired function, or if the injury disrupts daily movement or sleep, seek medical evaluation before continuing any training. Proper imaging or diagnosis may be needed to rule out structural damage or more serious conditions.

If the symptoms are milder and manageable, here’s where many dedicated individuals go wrong: they don’t listen to their body. They take some ibuprofen, roll it out, maybe even brag about pushing through it. That works until it doesn’t. What started as a manageable overuse issue turns into tendinopathy, bursitis, or a stress fracture.

If you’re not dealing with something severe, the first move is to stop the aggravating pattern. Not all movement, just the one that’s fueling the injury. Switch out running for cycling. Swap your back squats for sled pushes. Train the antagonist muscles and go lighter, slower, more controlled. In some cases, substitution works. In others, short-term rest from the aggravating movement comes first, then strategic recovery.

Next, find the root. Repetitive use injuries often expose imbalances. Maybe your hip mobility sucks. Maybe your shoulder stabilizers are underdeveloped. Maybe your form is solid under light loads but breaks down under fatigue. Get assessed — not by the guy at the gym who watched a Kelly Starrett video once, but by a licensed physical therapist or certified professional who understands your training approach.

How to keep your training from backfiring
Preventing repetitive use injuries isn’t just about stretching more or taking an extra rest day. It’s about training smarter. Here’s what that looks like:

• • Cycle your movements. Even if you love barbell bench, work in dumbbells, incline, decline, floor presses, or push-ups. If you’re a runner, rotate your terrain and mix in intervals, hills, and tempos.
  • Respect your soft tissue. Muscles heal fast. Tendons and ligaments don’t. If you hammer the same pattern every week, you need to give the connective tissue a break, not just by resting, but by programming deliberate variation.
  • Recover like it matters. That means sleep, nutrition, hydration, and active recovery – every week. Recovery isn’t a luxury, it’s a requirement if you want to be in the game long-term.
  • Check your ego. Just because you can grind doesn’t mean you should. Longevity in fitness doesn’t come from maxing out, it comes from knowing when to pull back before your body makes the decision for you.

Consistency builds strength. Intelligence protects it. The goal isn’t to stop training, it’s to train in a way that keeps you strong, mobile, and injury-free for decades. Your workouts should serve you, not sideline you.

Scotty