Muscles don’t just move you — they can help heal chronic pain

By Dana Santas, CNN

(CNN) — If you live with recurring aches and pains, it can seem safer to limit movement — especially lifting or doing anything that feels strenuous.

Many people avoid strength training for this reason, fearing it will only make their pain worse. But when approached strategically, building muscle strength can be one of the most effective tools for easing discomfort and improving everyday function.

This article is the first in a five-part series on the power of strength training to relieve pain and enhance movement.

Why strength can reduce pain

Chronic pain usually results from your nervous system perceiving an area of instability in your body. It responds by creating protective tension and heightening sensitivity. If you don’t take measures to address the source of your pain and calm your nervous system, you end up stuck in a sore state of limited mobility.

Strength training can break you out of that state by building muscular support around joints, correcting imbalances and improving overall stability. And by gradually exposing your body to increasing resistance, you can desensitize your overprotective nervous system. Over time, your brain recognizes that movement is safe in your stronger, more stable body, leading to expansion of your pain-free range of motion.

Two separate systematic reviews and meta-analyses highlight these benefits. One focused on people with knee and hip osteoarthritis and found that resistance training not only builds strength but also reduces discomfort and improves mobility.

The other, examining exercise and pain sensitivity, reported that regular training can raise pain thresholds — a sign that the nervous system becomes less reactive — through a process called exercise-induced hypoalgesia (reduced pain sensitivity from regular exercise).

Together, these findings highlight how strength training can offer a practical, science-backed way to move beyond chronic pain.

Becoming stronger than your pain

When your pain is chronic, there isn’t a switch you can flip to turn it off immediately. But strengthening is like a power knob you can gradually turn to create lasting results.

By beginning with isometrics — exercises that engage muscles around a joint without movement — you can start demonstrating to your nervous system that an area of instability and discomfort can be safely supported. For example, doing wall sits engages and builds the muscles that support your knees, while holding a plank position strengthens your core’s ability to brace your lower back.

Next, adding slow-tempo movement builds capacity without jolting your system. To progress from wall sits, you could move to body-weight squats in which you slowly lower into the squat over five seconds and then return to standing at the same pace.

Progressing from a plank, you could practice lowering yourself to the floor over three to five seconds from the top of a regular or modified (knees down) push-up, focusing on maintaining core and spinal control instead of collapsing.

As you feel yourself getting stronger doing isometric and slow-tempo exercises, you may want to add additional resistance with bands or free weights, depending on your areas of focus. The key is progressing gradually, giving your body time to adapt and your nervous system time to feel safe.

If you have sharp or unexplained pain, or a recent injury, talk to your doctor or a physical therapist. The goal is to exercise in ways that feel challenging but manageable, not to push through red flags.

Train patterns, not just parts

Real-world strength comes from coordinated patterns. Understanding what and where to prioritize your training makes all the difference in your results. That’s why this series targets areas that often fly under the radar but influence the way you move every day.

Upcoming articles will focus on:

Obliques: Often thought of as just side abs, these muscles do much more. They help stack your ribs over your pelvis, resist unwanted rotation and support your spine with each step and lift. When your obliques do their job, they help you avoid painful compensatory tension and strains in your lower back.

Inner thighs: Your inner-thigh muscles (adductors) stabilize your pelvis and guide your legs under you as you walk, turn and change direction. Weak adductors can cause balance and lower-body coordination issues. Signs indicating you may need to address these muscles include groin discomfort, back pain and hip impingement.

Shoulder blades: Stable scapular movement is the foundation of healthy shoulders and a relaxed neck. If your shoulder blades lack a strong anchor and controlled mobility, it can lead to mid-back pain, difficulty with upper-body movements, arm weakness and posture problems.

By training these specific areas, you’re not just getting stronger — you’re improving alignment and load sharing across your body, which reduces compensations and risk of injury.

Breathe to enhance strength, calm and rest

The final article in the series will cover how your breathing is the bridge between strength and your nervous system. Slow nasal inhales expand and mobilize your rib cage, while long, deep exhales help you access your deep core and better position your rib cage over your pelvis. This positioning enables your core muscles to engage more effectively and support your spine while you move.

Deep breathing also helps downshift an amped-up nervous system so your body can release unnecessary tension. This shift moves you into the parasympathetic “rest-and-restore” state in which muscle building and repair take place.

By coordinating your breath with strength training, you’re working with your body’s natural systems rather than against them.

Building a strong, pain-free foundation

This first article lays the foundation for understanding how strength training can help you heal from chronic pain and improve your daily function. Getting stronger shouldn’t be about chasing max numbers or completing punishing workouts — it serves you best by making your body a safe, stable foundation for pain-free activities.

Over the next four articles, I’ll dive deep into specific strategies that target the areas where smart resistance training makes the biggest difference in how you feel and move.

You’ll discover how to build the kind of strength that translates into real-world wins — whether that’s getting up from the floor with ease or reaching overhead without hesitation. Your stronger body will give you the confidence that comes from moving without flinching.

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