Should I run recklessly?
Weekly nuggets of pain science news and insight, usually 100-300 words, with the occasional longer post. The blog is the “director’s commentary” on the core content of PainScience.com: a library of major articles and books about common painful problems and popular treatments. See the blog archives or updates for the whole site.
Real question from a runner:
“I don’t have time to sit about not training. Is it safe to just stuff myself with pain killers & carry on?”
Um, no … in (at least) 2 important ways:
First, of course, there’s just a real risk of making any injury much worse that way. Duh! There are exceptions, but you need to know what those are — you need a clear and specific rationale for breaking a generally excellent rule.
And second, “stuffing” with pain-killers is seriously risky and useless to boot. Pain-killers are Band-Aids at best, possibly not even that, and definitely not a good long term solution, because there isn't a single one that doesn't have truly serious hazards with chronic use (not the least of which is their effectiveness wanes).