Is it okay to be using Ibuprofen for every workout to alleviate pain?

[Polishdude20]

I've been getting shoulder and hip pain when squatting for the past month or so and it gets to a point where my presses and bench afterwards suffer due to the shoulder pain. I've been trying to vary my grip to fix it but it seems to not have helped much. I also get pain in my hips when squatting and I've changed my stance around to try and fix that as well with no luck. So I've been taking 200mg of Ibuprofen before my workouts to prevent the pain. Is this a bad idea?

[Chebass88]

Sure, in that you have an issue with your squat and are fixing the symptom of that problem and not the problem yourself. It could be a strain, poor form, or a variety of other things (we can't see you lift, so who knows what is going on). Post a form check video in the technique or coaches sections for review.

[jbackos]

One time pain probably = injury of some type

Pepeated pain in a specific area = form problem.

[Christopher Anderson]

I'm of the mind that every once in a while, sure take some if you're beat up. But an everyday occurrence? Meh, I'm not a big fan of that kind of thing. This is a question Jordan could probably answer better from a medical perspective.

[George Christiansen]

I would not do it long term. Chronic pain means you are either doing something wrong or have something wrong.

I have done 3200 of it for 4-5 days because of a lot of pain in my bum shoulder, but this has been pretty rare and it isn't so much for the pain as for what the pain signifies. I take it to help heal a tweak, not just to feel better, but neither matter if you don't fix what caused the tweak.

It sounds to me like you are actually worse off because you are masking the response to what is likely a form error. I do the protocol above to completely heal the injury, but I also make sure that I don't repeat the performance that caused it.

[Charlie Davies]

Pain is useful information. My hip pain drove me to fix my knee-drift when squatting, for example. TUBOW!

I sometimes take pain meds when not lifting though, so that pain doesn't interfere with work or sleep.

I'd probably change my mind if I had a chronic condition that made pain inevitable, and after I'd determined that lifting anyway was the best course, and I was *sure* my form was good.

[Tiburon]

Be careful, that shit can fuck up your stomach if you take it for too long

[Austin Baraki]

One 200 mg tablet is a very low dose so it's pretty low risk for now, but the fact that you're "needing" it before every training session is a problem. You need to get that figured out, because this isn't sustainable.