When to exercise through pain, and when to rest

This is an installment of Good Fit, a column about exercise. It’s a good idea to begin an exercise program with a professional who understands chronic pain and can ensure movement won’t worsen any damage. Of course, starting an exercise program when you’re in pain can still feel counterintuitive and scary—especially if your chronic pain began with a sports injury. When you’re dealing with chronic pain, an important element of reintroducing exercise is convincing your brain that you’re safe, Okifuji said. That’s because when you learn to associate movement with pain, the anxiety you experience around physical activity and the expectation that it will trigger a flare-up can actually amplify pain signals—a phenomenon pain researchers call the nocebo effect, aka the “evil twin” of the placebo effect.