Pain & Performance: The Revolutionary New Way to Use Training as Treatment for Pain and Injury

by Ryan Whited, Matt Fitzgerald

Discover how to move through pain and injury, overcome perceived limits, and be in control of your athletic performance.

Pain is universal. Athletes in pursuit of performance are not strangers to pain—in fact they embrace it. But nothing derails training faster than nagging athletic pain and injury, which all too often land athletes in an endless cycle of physical therapy or leave them sidelined from sport altogether, awaiting surgery.

Pain & Performance is a tour de force that explores compelling advances in pain science to reveal the shocking lack of evidence to support modern medicine’s approach to injury management. Author Ryan Whited shares how his own journey, as both an elite climber and a professional trainer, inspired his revolutionary Training as Treatment method for helping athletes bounce back from broken to achieve breakthrough performances. This powerful new approach to musculoskeletal health will empower athletes to move through pain with confidence and control as they continue to chase big goals.

Genres: Nonfiction, Health

223 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 8, 2023

Reviews

[SrLunaLlena · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got interested in this book as I had several running related injuries in the past few years. While both Ryan Whited and Matt Fitzgerald are listed as authors, this book is primarily Ryan's work. Matt's company, 80/20 Publishing, is the publisher and I think he provided ample guidance and mentorship in the background for realizing this work. Especially, the incorporation of anecdotes is typical of any Matt Fitzgerald book.

Personally, I like the idea of "Training as Treatment" especially for pain that linger way after the structural effects of the traumatic event has healed. Such pain stops being a structural issue but transforms into a psychological problem, which is how our brain tries to protect us by inducing a "phantom" pain. Retraining or reprogramming the brain is required to gain confidence and to return to pain free movement. As I personally witnessed in my family mental health issues and stress also manifest as chronic physical pain long before a proper diagnosis, so brain and pain connection is bigger than otherwise known or explored by professionals when dealing physical pain.

Thus, we arrive at "Training as Treatment" which is the theme of this book. Ryan walks us through anecdotes from his family, his clients and himself. He introduces biopsycosocial model of pain and builds an actionable, progressive process of using training as a means of treatment. If you are looking for a detailed training plan, you will not find it here but there is enough to build one that is unique to your situation, your limitations etc. I think that is the right approach.

His message does get a bit repetitive but without those stories, it would be too dry and would fall short of delivering the message and making a case. For people that need a bit more convincing and are interested in the science behind, there is a reference section at the end of the book listing various articles from scientific journals. These references are organized by book chapters.

Do I recommend this book? Absolutely yes. It gives a new perspective to deal with pain and another tool in the toolbox.

[Việt Anh Nguyễn Lê · Rating 3 out of 5]

Skim-reading the last half of the book, the author repeated too much information, included too many personal stories, and mentioned too many times about his business (Advertising is good but too many).
The training as treatment itself sounds good and I believe in the method, but the writing was poor and lacked support.

[Suzanne Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

I totally agree with Whited's ideas on pain and how to deal with it, but the book was very repetitive. The science was especially interesting, but there was too much personal information that was not directly connected to the topic. We do need to change our attitudes toward pain, and this book is a good base, but I hope that other writers approach the same ideas in a less rambling manner.

[Hilary Topper · Rating 5 out of 5]

My biggest takeaway was that pain doesn't necessarily mean that you need to stop doing your workout.

[Alex Molik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Food for thought. Going to try reframing my idea of pain.

[CherylR · Rating 4 out of 5]

A New Take on athletic pain

There are some new ideas in this book relating to athletic pursuits, pain and injury. I did think it was somewhat wordy, but enjoyed it nevertheless.

[Noah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous book about how to move through a sports injury without surgery or simply bowing out.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good info. Felt longer than it needed to be. Glad I read it, and I'll definitely be reading this periodically.

[Jessie Hodel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Interesting take and interesting stories.
However…there is no research to fully back up the claims and the author is not a doctor.

[Jack Forsyth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great information about the upcoming science and understanding of pain, how it works, and what impacts it. Skip the forst two chapters and last two chapters as they are mainly the authors life story, as well as summarizing what has already been said, and applying it to your own training.

[Justin Knoetzke · Rating 1 out of 5]

Anecdotal evidence at best.