Moderate evidence

In chronic musculoskeletal pain, exercise that provokes some pain offers a small short-term benefit over strictly pain-free exercise.

In practice

Mild discomfort that settles isn't automatically a signal to stop. It doesn't follow that pushing through worse pain is better — the advantage was small and short-term, and the safe reading is that a bit of discomfort needn't derail you.

What it doesn't say

This is chronic pain under clinical supervision, not new pain, not sharp pain, and not pain during a heavy lift. Applying it to an acute injury would be a serious misreading.

Source

• Smith BE, Hendrick P, Smith TO, Bateman M, Moffatt F, Rathleff MS, Selfe J, Logan P (2017). Should exercises be painful in the management of chronic musculoskeletal pain? A systematic review and meta-analysis. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 51(23):1679–1687. doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2016-097383