I don't like pain. I like what it tells me.
That distinction changes everything.
Brady Volmering trains hard. He pushes his body to limits most people never approach. And when people see his content, they sometimes think he's a pain junkie—someone who gets off on suffering.
He's not.
"It's not that I like pain. That's not it."
What he is, is someone who has learned to listen to pain differently.
Pain as Signal
Here's how Brady thinks about it:
"Pain is just a signal, it's sensation, it's information. If I hit my thumb with a hammer, I'm going to have pain. My body's telling me, 'Hey bro, don't do that.' That is damaging me. Don't do that."
Simple enough. Pain says: attention needed here.
But most people stop there. They feel pain, they retreat. End of conversation.
Brady goes further:
"If I'm not feeling or sensing anything, then I already know how to do what I'm asking myself to do. It's already easy for me. If I'm sensing something, that's my body telling me, I don't quite know how to do this yet."
This is the key insight. Sensation marks the edge of your current capacity.
No sensation = already mastered. Sensation = growth territory.
The pain isn't telling you to stop. It's telling you: this is where the adaptation happens.
The Wrist Experiment
Brady has a story that demonstrates this perfectly.
He fell off a retaining wall—bricks slid out from under him—and caught himself with his hands. The impact did something to his wrist. He couldn't say exactly what because he never got it checked out.
Why not?
"Doing what I do in the way that I am, I was like, I'm not going to get this thing checked out. I wanted to use myself as a test subject of like, alright, does this actually work?"
His wrist was almost non-functional:
"The movement at my wrist was probably like a centimeter down, a centimeter up, and then in and out."
For the first few nights, he couldn't sleep. The ache was constant. He fashioned a makeshift brace using butter knives to keep his fingers straight because otherwise they'd curl and intensify the pain.
And then—instead of waiting months for "full healing"—he started working with what he had.
The Recovery Protocol
Here's what Brady did:
"I started to pay attention to the sensations that my body was giving me. So if I tried to pull my wrist down and it hurt a bunch, I just wouldn't go that far. And I would go a little bit above that. Same thing for every different direction. I started moving that."
He didn't ignore the pain. He didn't push through recklessly. He used the pain as a guide.
Pain said: "Not this far." He stayed just inside that line, moving constantly, asking the tissue to adapt.
And the rest of his body? He kept training hard.
"The next day I was doing whatever I did for the lower half, was training hard for that. Keeping the rest of my system going."
The result?
"I think it was either 50—it was like 54 or 60 days later or something—I was back to rebound benching. 315 with that."
60 days from "can barely move my wrist" to bouncing 315 pounds off his chest and pressing it back up.
The Anti-Numbing Approach
Here's a detail most people would find crazy:
"I also don't really take ibuprofen or aspirin or anything like that for very specific reasons—because it cuts off sensation."
Think about that. The standard advice when you're hurt: reduce inflammation, numb the pain, wait it out.
Brady's approach: keep the signal, use it as information, guide your recovery in real-time.
He's not against medicine. He's against cutting himself off from data his body is trying to provide.
Broader Than Physical
This applies to more than injuries.
"Pain doesn't always have to be pain. It can be fatigue. It can be tightness. It can be—like whatever the sensation is. That is providing me information for what I need to do if I want to be able to successfully do the thing that I'm asking myself to do."
Emotional discomfort? Information about what you're avoiding. Mental fatigue? Information about what's draining you. Resistance to a task? Information about where your edges are.
The sensation isn't the problem. The sensation is the map.
How to Use This
1. Stop Categorizing Sensation as "Bad"
Pain, discomfort, fatigue, resistance—these aren't enemies. They're communication. Start treating them as data.
2. Find the Edge, Don't Cross It
The growth zone is right at the edge of your capacity. Not past it. Not far from it. AT it.
When you feel sensation, you're in the right territory. Push just enough to stimulate adaptation, not so much that you break down.
3. Keep the Signal On
Be cautious about numbing—physically or emotionally. Alcohol, painkillers, distraction, avoidance—these cut you off from data you need.
Sometimes the uncomfortable truth is more useful than the comfortable lie.
4. Move Anyway
Brady didn't stop moving. He adjusted HOW he moved based on feedback. But movement continued.
Whatever your version of this is—keep moving. Keep showing up. Just adjust based on what your body (or mind, or emotions) is telling you.
The Reframe
Next time you feel pain—physical or otherwise—try this:
Instead of: "This hurts. I should stop." Try: "This is information. What is it telling me?"
Instead of: "I hate this feeling." Try: "This feeling marks the edge of my current capacity."
Instead of: "Make it stop." Try: "How do I work with this, not against it?"
Pain isn't the enemy.
Numbness is. Avoidance is. Stopping is.
Pain is just your body's way of saying: "Pay attention here. This matters."
What you do with that information determines everything.
Brady Volmering rebuilt his wrist function in 60 days by treating pain as data, not a directive to quit. He runs DAC Performance and Health, where he helps athletes develop the same relationship with their bodies.
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