Painkillers and Exercise – A Delicate Balance?

STOP! Are You Sabotaging Your Body with Painkillers During Exercise? Here’s What Almost Cost Me My Next Ultramarathon Run.

Welcome back, today I’m tackling a topic that could make or break your training: painkillers and exercise. Whether you’re grinding for a new PB, pushing through an injury, or just determined not to break your training streak, you need to read this before you pop that next ibuprofen.

Why Am I Talking About Painkillers? It’s Day 1,724 of my Runpreneur Challenge – if you’ve been following, you know the aim: to go beyond Day 4,292, run 40,075km (yes, that’s the distance around the world), and most importantly, raise a life-changing £1,000,000 for children’s causes. The stakes? Absolutely massive. Every step, blister, and muscle strain is about saving lives.

But yesterday, I was nearly derailed. Elevation at 1,500 metres, lungs on fire, brutal 7.5km run with a whopping 222m climb – and let’s throw in a pulled hamstring from skiing and a fresh calf strain for good measure! Sound familiar? That creeping dread that you might have to stop? That’s when the debate kicks in: should you reach for painkillers?

The Painkiller Trap: Quick Fix or Hidden Danger? Let me be brutally honest. I caved and took a couple of ibuprofen before the slopes and another before my run. Why? Desperation, mostly. The anti-inflammatory effect feels like a miracle when muscles are screaming. But here’s the TRUTH nobody wants to shout about:

Painkillers don’t fix the problem – they just turn off your body’s warning signals.

Pain is not the enemy; it’s your body’s internal alarm system saying, “Mate, something’s not right. Ease off before you make things worse!” By masking this feedback, you massively up your risk of turning a niggle into a show-stopping injury – something that could have ended my challenge if I wasn’t careful.

The Right Way to Use Painkillers (If At All) I’m not saying never touch painkillers or anti-inflammatories – sometimes they’re necessary, especially if swelling’s involved. But you need a strategy, not a shortcut:

Use anti-inflammatories for actual inflammation, not just to mask pain.

Always listen to medical professionals – physios and doctors are key.

Stay conscious: If you’re numbing the discomfort, don’t ignore the underlying problem or push harder than you should.

Ask yourself: “Am I taking these to heal, or just to finish today’s workout at the expense of tomorrow?”

A Hard Lesson: More Damage Isn’t Worth It Trust me, I get it – the urge to keep your streak alive, the drive to do ‘just one more run’ for the cause. I almost risked weeks — maybe months — of progress for a single day’s tick on the board. That’s not the mindset that will help me finish this challenge, smash 40,075km, or hit the £1M target for kids’ charities.

Let’s Keep Each Other Accountable, are you guilty of running through pain on pills? Drop your storey or questions below. I reply to every single comment because community is how I level up – and how together, we’ll save lives, inspire each other, and keep smashing records.

Your Support Is Everything If you believe in my mission — raising £1 million for children's causes with the world’s longest barefoot run streak — PLEASE hit subscribe, like, and share this post. The bigger our community, the more lives we save.

Stay positive. Stay happy. And above all — listen to your body, not just the next painkiller.

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