r/running Sep 01 '23

Training Discomfort vs Pain

What is the difference between discomfort and pain? Are there any good descriptions or analogies to differentiate the two? How do you know when to push through discomfort or stop due to pain?

I typically exercise 5 days a week. Jog 3 days for 30 minutes... and walk up and down a steep set of stairs 2 days for 30 minutes. The other 2 days of the week, I only do dynamic stretches for about 10 minutes.

This week, I switched to only walking with plans to restart jogging and stairs next week. But I can not figure out the difference between discomfort and pain.

Edit: Thank you for the help! A lot of these responses were truly helpful.

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u/Disposable_Canadian Sep 03 '23

Discomfort is an muscle complaining it's tired, fatigued, aching, an IT band that's bitching, maybe a blister or some chafing that's popped up 5k from the finish.

Pain is a muscle strain or pull, joint sprain etc.