Can I keep training with a minor injury?

This follows the NHS advice for sprains and strains. Get emergency care (in the UK, call 999 or go to A&E; elsewhere, your local emergency number), and don’t drive yourself, if:

• You heard a crack when you were injured.
• It has changed shape or points at an odd angle.
• It is numb, tingling or has pins and needles.
• The skin around it has turned blue or grey, or is cold to touch.

Get help from NHS 111 or an urgent treatment centre (or your local equivalent) if it’s very painful or getting worse, the swelling or bruising is large or growing, you can’t put weight on it or walk more than a few steps, it’s very stiff, you have a high temperature or feel hot, cold or shivery, or it isn’t improving after looking after it yourself. See a GP or physiotherapist if it’s getting worse or not better. We can’t diagnose an injury; a professional can, and their rehab plan comes before anything here.

For the first two to three days, the NHS advises protecting the injury, stopping exercise that loads it and keeping weight off it, with ice, compression and raising it. Once pain no longer stops you moving it, keep it moving gently so it doesn’t get stiff. Sports-medicine guidance for soft-tissue injuries agrees: protect it for the first one to three days, then let pain guide a gradual return to loading rather than resting for longer.

You can usually keep training the rest of your body in those first days, as long as it doesn’t load or hurt the injured area. Bring the injured area back with light, pain-free movements first and add load over the following sessions. The NHS also advises avoiding strenuous exercise such as running with a sprain or strain for up to eight weeks.

Long-standing (chronic) muscle and joint pain is different from a new injury. For chronic pain, a meta-analysis found exercise that allowed some discomfort was no worse than pain-free exercise, and slightly better in the short term. That evidence is about chronic pain, ideally with a professional’s plan, not about a fresh strain or sprain.

• Sore knee: try a leg press with a shorter range, or hip-focused moves like a glute bridge.
• Sore lower back: try a leg press or seated cable row instead of heavy squats or barbell rows; see exercises for lower back pain.
• Sore shoulder: try a neutral-grip dumbbell press through a pain-free range instead of overhead pressing.

Tell Spot what hurts and you can ask it to adjust your GymStreak plan, for example swapping squats for something easier on your knees. Check the workout it gives you before you train. Spot can’t diagnose injuries, so get severe, new or worsening pain checked by a doctor or physiotherapist yourself.