If you've ever walked into a physical therapy clinic with a lifting or running injury and walked out with a yellow TheraBand and three sets of arm circles, you already know the problem: physical therapy for athletes is not the same animal as general rehab, and most clinics aren't built to tell the difference.
That's exactly why Rob sat down with Jared Caroff, DPT, certified orthopedic manual therapist, and 12-year competitive powerlifter, for this episode of the C3 Method podcast. Jared owns Function Reforged, a practice built specifically to bridge the gap between "get better enough to walk without pain" and "get back to squatting 500 pounds or running a 50K." Rob brings his own lens to this conversation — a Master's in Human Nutrition, an ACSM personal training certification, a NASM Corrective Exercise Specialist credential, and over 3,000 clients coached through exactly this kind of chronic injury, performance, and recovery puzzle.
In this article, you'll learn how acute injuries differ from chronic ones in terms of rehab strategy, why your mindset around pain matters as much as the physical tissue damage, how elite athletes train around injuries without losing fitness, which recovery modalities are actually worth your time, and what to look for when choosing a physical therapist who understands athletic performance.
When you tweak your back deadlifting last week, your rehab priorities look nothing like the priorities for someone who's had recurring low back pain for a decade. Jared breaks it down clearly: with a fresh, acute injury, the goal is simple — keep pain levels low, stay active so you don't detrain, and avoid anything that's actively painful. As the acute phase settles, you reintroduce load gradually.
Chronic or recurring pain requires a different lens entirely. Jared digs into training volume, load history, sleep, stress, alcohol, and smoking habits before he ever writes an exercise. Why? Because with long-standing pain, the goal isn't just fixing tissue — it's finding "a safe entry point" that still feels like real training, then sneaking a hinge, squat, or press pattern back in as your body adapts.
Here's something most rehab conversations skip: new pain and old pain trigger completely different psychological responses. Someone with a brand-new injury often panics — "Did I permanently damage myself?" Someone with chronic pain has usually already resigned themselves to a smaller life — "I'll never squat like I used to." Jared's job in both cases is diagnosing whether the limitation in front of him is physical or emotional, then coaching accordingly.
One of Jared's clients hadn't run in four and a half years because of chronic knee pain. She's now training for a 50K after finishing a 25K pain-free. That's not luck — that's systematically rebuilding confidence alongside tissue capacity.
You do not need to stop training because something hurts. Jared's rule: find the loads and patterns that are relatively pain-free and keep training through them. When he tore his calf muscle at a strongman competition (a grade 2 tear, third rep of a log clean and press), he didn't sit on the couch for six months. He shifted to snatch-grip RDLs instead of sumo deadlifts, because sumo shifts weight onto the toes and stresses the calf for balance — snatch-grip keeps the load in the heels. He swapped free squats for belt squats and leg presses because he couldn't stabilize a squat pattern safely yet.
This is the difference between a generalist therapist and one who trains athletes: knowing which movement pattern loads the injured tissue and which doesn't, then rebuilding the entire program around that constraint — not around a stock exercise sheet.
Jared shared a specific technique for clients afraid of squat depth after a back injury: start with a heels-elevated goblet squat at a light load so they can sit all the way down without fear, then move heavier work to a high box squat and progressively lower the box height over weeks. Eventually the box disappears and they're squatting below parallel — without ever "deciding" to push through fear. That's coaching psychology built into programming.
Jared has dealt with chronic lateral hip tendinitis/bursitis since grad school — the same years Rob was coaching him. It first flared so badly he couldn't stand up out of a car. Since then, it resurfaces roughly once every year to year and a half, usually during heavy squat blocks leading into a meet.
His approach hasn't changed: never fully stop lifting, find pain-minimal variations (SSB squat instead of low-bar when the hip flares), prioritize sleep and hydration, and treat each flare-up as familiar territory instead of a crisis. The result? Since that first flare-up when he could deadlift 500 pounds, squat low 400s, and bench 275, Jared has progressed to a 700-pound deadlift, a 520-pound squat, and a 365-pound bench — while managing a recurring injury the entire time.
The takeaway: chronic pain doesn't have to cap your progress. It just changes how you get there.
Jared has tried nearly every recovery tool on the market — ice baths, cryotherapy, infrared, saunas, compression, dry needling, acupuncture — and his conclusion is refreshingly unsexy: whatever works for your body is what you should use.
A few specifics worth noting:
The lesson: don't let social media convince you the "extreme" answer is the right one. The middle-ground answer — try it, track your response, keep what works — just doesn't go viral.
If you're searching for a PT and you lift, run, or compete, Jared says look for two things. First, relevant experience — a therapist who has never done manual labor will struggle to rehab you back to pouring concrete, and one who's never trained heavy will struggle to program your return to squatting or sprinting. Second, you need to feel heard. If your first session feels like "it hurts, do these three things, see you later," that's a sign to find someone else.
This is exactly why Jared built Function Reforged as a cash-based model with 90-minute sessions instead of the insurance-driven "twice a week for six weeks" mill most outpatient clinics run. Insurance reimbursement structures often require multiple visits per week regardless of whether you actually need them — which has nothing to do with your recovery and everything to do with billing codes.
Ready to Put This Into Practice?
Every body is different. Rob works one-on-one with clients to build personalized nutrition and training plans that actually stick. With 3,000+ clients coached and results ranging from Pro Cards to D1 scholarships, the C3 Method delivers.
Book Your Free Consultation — limited spots available.
Q: Should I stop training completely if I have a chronic injury like recurring back or hip pain?
No. Jared and Rob both emphasize continuing to train through chronic pain by finding movement variations that stay below your pain threshold. Complete rest often leads to detraining, deconditioning, and a longer road back once you do return to full activity.
Q: How is physical therapy for athletes different from standard outpatient PT?
Standard outpatient clinics are often structured around insurance billing and high patient volume, leading to generic exercise prescriptions like basic resistance bands regardless of your activity level. Athlete-focused PT requires understanding sport-specific demands, load tolerance, and performance goals — which is why Jared built Function Reforged around individualized, cash-based programming instead.
Q: What's the difference in treating an acute injury versus a long-standing chronic one?
Acute injuries typically require keeping pain low, staying gently active, and slowly reintroducing load as the initial inflammation resolves. Chronic injuries require a deeper investigation into training history, lifestyle stressors, and compensatory movement patterns that have built up over months or years.
Q: Are ice baths or cryotherapy worth it for recovery?
They can help in specific situations, like an athlete needing inflammation down quickly between competition events, but they're not a universal recovery tool. Jared personally doesn't respond well to cold therapy, while Rob experienced old joint pain resurfacing after a cryochamber session — proving recovery modalities are highly individual.
Q: How do I know if my pain is a physical limitation or a mental/emotional block?
Jared uses video analysis and in-person movement assessment to differentiate — watching whether someone physically cannot reach a range of motion versus subconsciously avoiding it out of fear. A skilled therapist can then use tricks like adjusting load or equipment (heel-elevated squats, box squats) to sidestep the fear without confronting it head-on.
Q: Can you keep making strength gains while dealing with a chronic injury?
Yes — Jared is proof of it. Despite a recurring hip issue that flares up roughly once a year, he's progressed from a 500-pound deadlift to 700 pounds, and from a low-400s squat to 520 pounds, all while managing the injury through smart programming adjustments.
Training through injury isn't about ignoring pain or pushing recklessly through it — it's about understanding exactly which movements are safe, which lifestyle factors are fueling the problem, and how to rebuild both physical capacity and confidence at the same time. Jared's own story, from a debilitating hip flare-up in grad school to an elite powerlifting total, proves that chronic pain and continued progress aren't mutually exclusive when you approach both with the right strategy.
Whether you're dealing with a fresh injury or a nagging issue that's followed you for years, the path forward isn't guesswork — it's individualized assessment, smart movement substitutions, and a coach or therapist who treats you like a person, not a diagnosis code.
Take the Next Step
If today's episode resonated with you, imagine having this level of guidance personalized to your exact goals, schedule, and body. That's what working with Rob looks like.
Want the full conversation, including Jared's detailed breakdown of his calf tear rehab and the compensatory movement patterns he sees most often in lifters and runners? Listen to the complete episode here: 2348 - Expert Guest Discussion - Jared Caroff - Physical Therapist & Elite Powerlifter