A real decision tree for something that hurts a little while running this program — when to just note it and keep going, when to log it and let the pain-scale gate advise you, when to start a real injury log, and when the honest answer is a structured comeback. None of this is medical advice or a diagnosis.
Something hurts a little today? Most of the time the honest answer is smaller than it feels — here’s how to tell, and what to actually do about it. The real decision tree · Pain during a specific lift
Dealing with something that’s stuck around? A persistent issue and a real setback both have real, built-in tools — not a guess. Start an injury log · A structured comeback
"Something hurts a little" covers a lot of very different situations, and the right response is different for each one. This page is a plain-language map from what you're actually feeling to what to do about it — and, where it applies, which real, already-built tool in this app is for that exact situation. Say the honest limit of this up front, in full below: none of it is medical advice, and none of it is a diagnosis.
| What you’re feeling | What to actually do | The tool that helps |
|---|---|---|
| A minor ache that doesn’t change how the lift feels or moves | Keep training as planned. Note it if you want a record, nothing more. | Nothing required — an injury log entry only if you want one |
| Real pain during a specific working set | Log it on that set and let the pain-scale gate advise you | The in-session pain scale |
| The same movement keeps aggravating something, session after session | Start an injury log, track what aggravates it versus what doesn’t, consider a substitute | Injury log + injury-aware substitution |
| Serious enough that you’re deliberately backing a lift off, not just modifying a set | A phased, pain-free-gated return to full training | Return-to-training plan, tendon-loading templates, mobility library |
Every tool named on this page shares the same posture the rest of this app's autoregulation already uses: it surfaces a plain-language read of what you reported, it never silently changes your program or your session on its own, and the actual decision stays yours to make and act on.
If something feels slightly off but the lift still moves the way it should — same range of motion, same bar speed, nothing you'd call pain — the honest answer for a novice is to keep training. See chasing soreness instead of the number on the bar for why this program only reads whether the prescribed reps happened, never how a set felt going in; the same logic holds here. Noticing a minor ache isn't itself a reason to change anything about today's session.
If you'd rather keep a record in case it becomes something later, the injury log covered below can hold an entry for something this minor — nothing about it requires waiting until it's a real problem to open one. Equally, nothing requires it. A stray ache that never comes back doesn't need a file.
The difference between a minor ache and this case is that it's happening on a specific set you're logging right now, and the app has a real, built-in advisory for exactly that. Every logged set carries an optional 0-10 pain rating, and logging one returns a plain-language read: 0-2 says training is fine to continue, 3-5 says to reduce load, range of motion, or volume on that movement rather than push through it, and 6 or higher says to stop that movement for the day. The bands are fixed and this app's own reasonable default — not a clinical protocol run by a professional — and the number behind them is always something you report, never something the app estimates about you.
If you already know a specific lift is one you're nursing rather than pushing, a separate toggle on that exercise reframes the usual effort question after a set from "could I have done more" to "should I have done more." It's the same reps-in-reserve idea covered on the RPE/RIR page, just deliberately tuned conservative for a lift you're being careful with — it doesn't gate anything or change your program on its own, it only changes the question the app asks you.
A single sore set and a real, standing issue are different problems. Once the same movement keeps aggravating something session after session, rather than logging pain per set, the honest next move is a real injury log — Resolve calls it exactly that in the Gym tab, and its own copy is direct about what it is: a reference for planning, not a diagnosis.
Name it, mark it active, and build a two-column list as you go: which lifts or exercises aggravate it, which you've tolerated pain-free. Re-assessing a movement replaces the prior call rather than piling up a history — the point is a current answer to "where do things stand," not a diary of every check. If you train with a coach and have training shared with them, they can see this list too; it's exactly the kind of thing a coach needs in order to actually plan around it, not something withheld from them by default.
Once an injury is logged, the exercise-swap tool already built into a workout gets sharper because of it: pick your injury when you open the substitute picker for a lift, and every suggested substitute gets flagged with your own prior call on it — "tolerated pain-free before" or "aggravated this injury before." That's a flag, not a filter. A substitute you've already found aggravating still shows up, just marked, so you're the one deciding, not the app quietly hiding an option on your behalf.
Before an issue is bad enough to need a real comeback plan, the Recovery tool has a real library of stretches and mobility drills organized by joint region — ankle, hip, overhead shoulder, thoracic spine, and lat/pec — each with the coaching cue behind it, not just a name and a photo. Worth a look before deciding something needs a bigger response than that. That same library is also the subject of its own page for a different, non-injury question — see mobility work for the four lifts if what actually brought you here is a range-of-motion limit on a lift that doesn't hurt, rather than something that does.
When the persistent issue behind a stubborn ache is genuinely tendon-related — patellar tendon pain from squatting is the common example — the same Recovery tool has real, structured week-by-week loading templates rather than a vague "do some isometrics" suggestion. Right now that's two: a 10-week patellar-tendon heavy-slow-resistance progression, and a 6-week general isometric progression built as a bridge toward it. Every week names the one variable that actually changed, on purpose, so a setback can be traced to what changed rather than guessed at.
For something serious enough that you're genuinely backing a lift off rather than just modifying a set, the injury log can open a real return-to-training plan: three fixed phases in order — isometric loading, then heavy-slow-resistance, then plyometric and sport-specific work — and the only thing gating a move to the next phase is your own confirmation that a real functional test at that phase's loading was pain-free, not a calendar date. The first two phases link directly to the matching tendon-loading template above; the last phase doesn't have a published protocol behind it yet, stated here plainly rather than implied otherwise.
One more real tool worth naming so it isn't confused with any of the above: the pre-workout soreness check-in already covered on the sleep and recovery basics page is about same-day fatigue and soreness, not a lasting injury — this page is about something that's crossed from "sore" into "hurts, and keeps happening."
Said plainly, the way the injury log's own copy already says it about itself: every tool named on this page is a tracking, planning, and advisory tool, not a diagnostic one. None of it is medical advice, none of it examines you, and none of it can actually tell you what's wrong. The pain-scale bands above are this app's own reasonable default for when to ease off or stop — not a protocol handed down by a physician — and the point of all of it is to give you a plain-language nudge to pay attention, not a verdict.
If something is severe, sudden, involves numbness or real weakness, or simply isn't getting better with rest and the modifications above, that's a real reason to see an actual medical professional rather than keep working through the decision tree on this page. Nothing here replaces that, and nothing in this program is built to.
This page is about something that hurts. If what's actually going on isn't pain at all but a real question about how your age or sex should shape the way you run this program — bone density and joint considerations for an older lifter, growth-plate-safe loading for a younger one, or training differences for a woman — that's a different page: see older, younger, and women lifters. If it's a real question about pregnancy or postpartum recovery specifically, see pregnant and postpartum lifters instead.