The I3 Model of Pain: Why Your Injury Started Long Before It Hurt

Tell me if this sounds familiar.

You're at the gym deadlifting—a movement you've done for years without issue. Mid-rep, you feel a pop in your back. You drop the weight and slowly test some movement. Sure enough, when you bend forward, pain spreads across your low back.

What the F*$% just happened?

Within hours, you're down the ChatGPT rabbit hole reading about herniated discs. Your buddy's telling you his doctor said deadlifting is "bad for your back" and he had to quit completely.

But you don't want to accept that. You also don't want to hurt yourself worse. Most importantly, you want to understand WHY this happened in the first place.

In this scenario, it's easy to blame the deadlift itself. Maybe you shouldn't have added those extra 5 pounds. Maybe you should've warmed up better. But you felt fine during your working sets, so what gives?

Here's the Truth Most People Miss

In this scenario—and in the vast majority of movement-based injuries—there isn't truly a singular cause. Sure, there's a MOMENT (the deadlift, the sprint, the reach overhead) that seems to trigger the pain. But in reality, pain is the LAST step in a long series of incidents leading to your body finally saying "NOPE."

Think of it like this: If you're at the bar taking shots, you don't blame the 8th shot for getting you drunk. It's the seven you had before it that really did the damage. That last one just pushed you over the edge.

We call this the I3 Model of Pain, and understanding it will completely change how you approach injury recovery.

The I3 Model: A Three-Step Path to Pain

The I3 model describes three sequential processes that lead to pain:

Incomplete Mechanics → which create Insults → which eventually cause Injury

Let's break down each step.

Step 1: Incomplete Mechanics (The Foundation Is Cracked)

Incomplete mechanics are the hidden movement faults that set everything in motion.

These could include:

Mobility limitations (tight hips, stiff ankles, restricted thoracic spine)

Stability deficits (weak core, poor glute activation)Motor control issues (timing problems, coordination faults)

Strength imbalances (one side stronger than the other)

Poor movement technique (learned patterns that aren't optimal)

Back to our deadlift example: Let's say you have tight hamstrings that prevent you from getting into a proper setup position. Or maybe weak lats that allow the bar to drift away from your body, increasing force at the low back. Perhaps your bracing strategy is inefficient, leaving your spine without sufficient stability under load. Or your hips shoot up before you drive through the floor, robbing you of leg power.

Individually, these incomplete mechanics might not seem like a big deal. You can still complete the lift. You might even feel pretty good doing it. But here's the problem: they prevent optimal execution and tissue loading.Over time, these small faults don't just stay small—they create the next step in the injury process.

Step 2: Insults (Death By a Thousand Paper Cuts)

Insults are minor stressors that cause improper tissue loading and compensations to accumulate over time.

Let's dive deeper into the lat weakness example. Your lats stabilize your entire back and keep the bar moving in an optimal path close to your body. Without proper lat engagement, the bar drifts forward. Over time, this places additional load on your low back structures.

In this position, you're more likely to:

Get pulled forward onto your toes

Lose the ability to drive powerfully through the floor

Fail to recruit your glutes as the primary mover

Force your spinal erectors to work overtime

Here's the kicker: Your body can compensate and "get away with" this for a while. Maybe 100 reps. Maybe 1,000 reps. Everyone's tolerance is different.

But there will come a time when your body gets pushed over the edge. The tissues that have been absorbing all that improper loading finally give up. That's when injury occurs.

Step 3: Injury (The Breaking Point)

This is the final stop on the pathway to pain—and usually when we see patients walk through our door.

Those tissues have been improperly loaded for weeks, months, or even years due to incomplete mechanics. Eventually, they can't take it anymore. The extent of the injury depends on which tissue was involved and how much accumulated stress it absorbed.

The good news? When managed properly, pain is often the first thing to resolve after an injury. With a thorough movement exam and the right treatment plan, we can turn your pain around fairly quickly.

The bad news? Most people stop there—and that's where the real problem begins.

Why "Pain-Free" Doesn't Mean "Problem Solved"

Here's what I really want you to understand: just because your pain is gone doesn't mean you're ready to jump back into your deadlift program.

Sometimes we can eliminate pain in one or two sessions with dry needling or a manipulation. That feels great! But it's not solving the root cause.

Remember: months or years of improper loading due to incomplete mechanics created this problem. Eliminating pain is just treating the symptom—we haven't addressed the actual root cause yet.

The Real Solution Takes Time (And That's Okay)

To truly solve your pain problem long-term, we need to:

Uncover ALL your incomplete mechanics through comprehensive movement assessment

Systematically address them one by one with targeted mobility, stability, and strength work

Integrate those improvements into your actual movement patterns (your deadlift, your squat, your sport)

Rebuild capacity progressively so your tissues can handle the demands you're placing on them

All the hamstring stretches in the world won't help if we don't actually change your deadlift setup. All the lat strengthening exercises don't matter if we don't teach you how to integrate them into your pull.

Creating a long-term solution takes a long-term commitment. You didn't get hurt in one day—you got hurt over months or years of movement errors. Expect it to take months to truly fix the problem.

Breaking the Flare-Up Cycle of Doom

The last thing I want for you is to fall into what I call the "flare-up cycle of doom":

You get treatment and pain goes away

You feel better and return to training

You re-aggravate yourself because the root cause wasn't addressed

Pain returns, and the cycle repeats

You've only masked the symptoms temporarily—not solved the underlying problem.Think of it like antibiotics for an infection. You need to finish the entire course, not just stop when you feel better. The same applies to rehab: you need to stick it out beyond simply being pain-free.

Why Insurance-Based PT Falls Short

Sadly, the traditional insurance-based rehab world doesn't permit this level of care. When your insurance provider sees you've met your "goal" of being pain-free, they kick you out—problem "solved."

That won't happen at Pack Performance PT.

We have your back through the ENTIRE rehab process—not just until your pain disappears. We're committed to helping you find a true long-term solution, and that means being there at every step:

Understanding your incomplete mechanics

Addressing the accumulated insults

Healing the injury properly

Rebuilding capacity beyond your baseline

Integrating better patterns into your training

Progressing you back to full performance

Nobody should have to figure out their pain alone. That's our guiding principle, and it's why we do things differently.

Ready to Break the Cycle?

If you're tired of temporary fixes and ready to finally solve your pain problem for good, you've found the right place.

At Pack Performance PT, we use the I3 model to dig deep, find the root cause, and create a comprehensive plan that doesn't just get you out of pain—it builds a more resilient, capable body that can handle whatever you throw at it.

Schedule a free consultation and let's figure out your pain together. You've got the Pack at your back.