When “Stop Exercising” Isn’t the Whole Story

There are absolutely times when rest is appropriate.

After certain surgeries.
During acute medical events.
When specific tissues genuinely need protection.

This article isn’t about those situations.

It’s about something more common and more subtle — when someone experiencing back pain, joint pain, or a flare-up is told to “just stop exercising” without further guidance.

For health professionals, this advice is often protective.

For patients, it can feel like a full stop.

And that difference matters.

What patients often hear

When someone is told to stop exercising, they rarely hear nuance.

They hear:

• Movement is dangerous.

• My body is fragile.

• I shouldn’t load it.

• I’ll wait until it’s fixed.

What often follows is:

• Loss of routine

• Loss of confidence

• Heightened vigilance around sensation

• Fear of restarting

For many people, this creates a cycle:

Pain → Stop → Decondition → Try to restart → Flare → Stop again.

Not because rest was inappropriate.
But because the advice was global.

A simple clinical question

If someone is able to:

• Get out of bed

• Walk to the kitchen

• Shower

• Tolerate daily ambulation

Then they are already accepting load.

Walking places meaningful demand through the spine, hips, knees and ankles.

In a structured movement setting, we can create positions that are:

• More supported than walking

• Lower range than walking

• Slower than walking

• More controlled than walking

There are countless ways to reduce demand without removing movement entirely.

So the question is often not:

Should they move?

It is:

How can they move with less demand right now?

Movement isn’t binary

Exercise is not one thing.

It can be modified across:

• Load

• Position

• Stability

• Range

• Tempo

• Breathing

• Intent

Telling someone to “stop exercising” collapses all of those variables into a yes-or-no decision.

But in most musculoskeletal cases, the better approach is graded adjustment — not withdrawal.

For patients reading this

If you’ve been told to stop exercising and you’re unsure what that means:

It doesn’t automatically mean your body is unsafe.

It may mean:

• A specific movement needs adjusting

• Load needs reducing

• Range needs modifying

• Support needs increasing

And there’s an important psychological distinction here.

Telling yourself:

“I can’t exercise because something is wrong with my body.”

is very different to saying:

“I’m choosing to rest because rest is part of the training process.”

Rest and recovery are part of any exercise journey. They are strategic. They are intentional.

Avoiding movement because of fear or pain messaging, however, teaches a very different lesson. It reinforces fragility, hypervigilance and disconnection.

If you can walk, sit, stand and carry out daily tasks, there are almost always options available that are less demanding than daily life itself.

The key is guidance — not withdrawal.

For health professionals

Encouraging patients to modify rather than cease movement can:

• Preserve confidence

• Reduce fear-avoidance

• Maintain long-term adherence

• Support graded exposure

Language shifts like:

• “Reduce load temporarily.”

• “Modify rather than stop.”

• “Stay active within tolerance.”

• “Now is a good time for movement-specific support.”

…can preserve protection without encouraging disengagement.

A collaborative approach

Many health professionals are not movement specialists — and they don’t need to be.

But broad exercise cessation advice can unintentionally contribute to deconditioning and fear-based avoidance.

The middle ground is collaboration:

Not:

“Don’t move.”

But:

“Move differently — and get support in doing so.”

Because listening to the body is not built through avoidance.

It is built through graded, supported exposure.