What to do with uncomfortable situations

Geoff Girvitz· April 24, 2026 · 4 min read

I was half asleep, the other night – 80% tops – when I noticed an uncomfortable sensation in my shoulder. That made sense; I had done a jiu-jitsu class earlier that day, where I had to contend with a huge, enormously strong man who somehow also moves like a puma. This is something I really appreciate about him when I am not fighting for my very life – but I digress. I focused my attention on my shoulder and changed position. When that failed, I stuck a squishy, rolled-up towel under my armpit (highly recommended if you suffer from cranky shoulders). That was helpful, but the real relief took a bit more time. More importantly, it required me to answer a question, which I want to share with you here:

What is the shape of this tension?

You’ll notice that I wasn’t trying to self-diagnose here. I wasn’t not even trying to “fix” things per se. What I was doing was acknowledging that when things hurt, the sensations we feel are not always related to our injuries. Sometimes – and this is well known to people who work with chronic pain patients – no structural issues can be seen in your imaging. If you’ve ever experienced real pain but been told that your MRI looks terrific, then you know how this goes. Clinically speaking, everything can be fine but things can feel awful anyway.

Is it “all in your head?” It was in my shoulder this time, actually. My head was involved only insofar as worrying was concerned (and worrying is always concerned). In reality, though our injuries are not always the problem. Sometimes, the problem comes from how we respond to the threat of injury. Muscular tension is one of the usual suspects here.

The classic example is a limp. Let’s say you ram your knee into an iron post and earn yourself a bonafide injury – confirmed with imaging and everything! So, you limp. And that’s adaptive. It keeps your weight off the bunged-up side while it heals. And if the limping makes your other leg feel a bit sore or tight, that’s the cost of doing business. However, the wild part is where the limp, along with its own little lineup of issues, persists long after the knee has healed. The shape of the tension is something that protects your knee. Early on, this is good and helpful. However, as time goes on, that shape may persist as an artifact, not a necessity. It might even be home to a bunch of new problems. So, you have to ask whether it’s time to let it go.

The Usual Compensations

Once the original issue has healed, you may not be ready to immediately shed your protective strategy. The problem is that when we shield something, we often wind up weakening it. So to return to function, we need to restore strength first. Maybe even take things beyond where they were before anything happened. This is what we might call post-rehab. Either way, it’s a way to come out stronger than before. Injury, as they say, is opportunity.

There’s another category of tension. Here, it’s merely a concern. These concerns rise up to protect us from potential injuries in the same way as above. The difference is that when/if you explore things, you find that there’s nothing that you need to protect yourself from… Except maybe your own protecting. Classic human stuff!

And what of my shoulder? As I lay there troubleshooting, I realized that my tension was shaped like protective guarding. Which is cool except that my shoulder was fine (probably). So, I changed the shape of my tension by pushing out instead of turtling up and being expansive instead of fearful. I wish I could tell you more but I soon found myself 100% asleep.

There’s a third category of tension. This kind has been there for as long as you can remember. This is a tricky shape because you can’t always differentiate from your own body. This kind of tension is rooted in habit and familiarity more than anything else. Maybe something that’s been encoded for years. Maybe it served an important purpose once upon a time. But even if that’s true, it’s still ancient history and all you’re left with is a loud signal of pain or discomfort – one that might live in your upper traps or neck or hip flexors. If you have a physical response to stress, it might show up here.

If I could make a wish for you, it would be to have the skill of experiencing stress without taking it into your body. Bad news? Tough break? Somebody hooting and hollering in your face? Your mind tracks the data but your body stays loose and limber.

It’s a big wish but perfecting this skill is less important than practicing, which you can already do. For example, when you notice yourself taking tension into your body you’re finding the first step. That noticing is the anchor for a new behaviour, which you can attach here. You might explore different positions. Or find a way to create structure elsewhere. Or just shake things loose. This all takes time and practice, which is why these are the kinds of skills we practice at Bang in between (and often during) intervals, and deadlifts, and such.

Personally speaking I have made it my own practice to respond quickly but calmly to any signals that I notice – even if they’re no big deal. It’s an important habit to me because if you can do this for small (or non-existent) issues, you’ll be skilled enough to do this for serious ones when they surface – and no matter what shape they take.

GG

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