Good Pain Versus Bad Pain

I received an interesting question the other day about how to differentiate pain that might lead to injury versus discomfort that can lead to growth.

it’s a pretty difficult answer here because the best suggestion I can give is to have experienced both. People’s relationship with pain is a topic that has fascinated me since my childhood.
All it is is just a signal created by chemicals and electrical impulses within our body, right? Still, pain is subjective from person to person and is largely influenced by previous experiences.
on top of that, it’s not something that can be measured universally so the sensations felt are highly individualized.
I have even read that having red hair is something that can change perception of pain and sensitivity to anesthesia.

you will probably find yourself a lot more sensitive to pain in areas you have injured before, which can be a good thing to protect the area or can be a hindrance when trying to recover in a way to make yourself stronger.
Personally I find myself the most sensitive in knees shoulders and wrists, which consequently are joints that I have had the most amount of injuries in.

Also it’s important to note that again pain is merely a signal. Absence of pain doesn’t necessarily mean all is good, presence of pain doesn’t necessarily mean something is wrong though it’s better not to just ignore it.

yes, sometimes it’s important to know how to push through the pain. other times it can be highly valuable to learn to recognize the signal your body is giving you and potentially hold off on the training.
ultimately the answer is probably not the one that you want to hear. Accumulate experiences so you have a more fine tuned awareness of what’s going on in your body. Then from the data you have collected, you can make decisions to act accordingly to hopefully make progress and help prevent potential injury.