"My back's shot, I can't lift." "My shoulder's been bad since hockey." "My knees won't take it." I hear a version of this from most men over 40 who tell me why they stopped training. And in most cases it's not true. What's true is the last program they tried didn't account for the injury, so it hurt, so they quit.

There's always a version of the movement your body will accept. Here's how to find it.

The rules

Sore is fine. Sharp is not. Muscle soreness a day or two after training is normal and good. A sharp, stabbing, or electric pain during a rep is your body telling you to stop that movement, today. Learn the difference and you can train through almost anything.

Train around, not through. If a movement hurts, you don't push through it. You swap it for one that hits the same muscles without the pain, and you keep training. Missing the whole session because one exercise hurts is how men lose a year.

Strengthen what's weak. Most bad backs are weak cores and weak glutes. Most bad shoulders are weak upper backs and tight chests. Most bad knees are weak hips. Training the right things usually fixes the thing that hurts.

Bad back

Skip for now: conventional deadlifts, barbell back squats, bent-over barbell rows, sit-ups.

Do instead: hip thrusts and glute bridges for the hinge. Goblet squats or leg press for the squat. Chest-supported rows and single-arm dumbbell rows with your hand on a bench. Dead bugs, planks and bird dogs for the core. Farmer's carries.

Get strong in those for two or three months and the deadlift usually comes back, lighter, and feels fine.

Bad shoulder

Skip for now: barbell bench press, barbell overhead press, upright rows, dips, anything behind the neck.

Do instead: dumbbell press with your palms facing each other (neutral grip). Push-ups, which let the shoulder blade move naturally. Landmine press. Lots of rows and face pulls, because the fix for most shoulders is a stronger upper back. Band pull-aparts every warm-up.

Three sets of face pulls, three times a week, fixes more shoulders than any physio exercise I know.

Bad knees

Skip for now: deep barbell squats, forward lunges, running, box jumps.

Do instead: box squats to a high box. Leg press with your feet high on the platform. Reverse lunges and step-ups, which load the knee more kindly than forward lunges. Leg curls to build the hamstrings, which protect the knee. Incline walking instead of running.

Losing 20 pounds does more for bad knees than any exercise, because every pound of body weight is four pounds on the knee going down stairs.

The warm-up you've been skipping

Five minutes of walking or biking to get warm. Then ten band pull-aparts, ten leg swings each side, ten bodyweight squats, and two light sets of your first exercise. That's it. Cold joints get hurt. Warm ones don't.

When to actually stop

Pain that gets worse across a session, not better. Pain that's there the next morning and the morning after. Numbness or tingling down an arm or leg. Any joint that's swollen. Those are physio or doctor visits, not program changes. Go. A good physio will get you back training faster than resting will.

But "my back's a bit stiff" or "my shoulder clicks" isn't a reason to stop lifting. It's a reason to lift smarter.

The free Your Bro Rob app asks about your injuries in onboarding and builds the plan around them, with swaps for every movement. Start there.