The Tissue Tolerance Cup

Written by Physical Therapist, Maddie Small, DPT

Think of your body (or a specific tissue) as a cup.

The size of the cup represents your tissue’s capacity or tolerance — how much physical, emotional, or physiological stress it can handle before overflowing.

The “contents” that fill your cup include:

    •    Physical load: training, lifting, running, or repetitive work

    •    Emotional stress

    •    Poor sleep

    •    Illness

    •    Nutrition

    •    Sudden changes in activity

    •    Past injury or deconditioning

Each of these adds a bit of liquid to the cup.

When total load exceeds capacity, the cup overflows, often showing up as pain, tightness, inflammation, or setbacks in recovery. That’s your body’s way of saying, “Too much right now.”

To support long-term health, performance, and resilience:

1. Grow your cup → Gradually build strength, endurance, and tissue capacity through smart, progressive loading and recovery.

2. Manage the pour → Balance stressors, improve sleep, adjust training volume or intensity, and support recovery.

Pain isn’t just about one movement or “bad tissue”, it’s about the total load on the system.

Tolerance often means finding balance between load and recovery. The goal of rehab isn’t avoiding stress altogether, it’s about building a bigger cup over time.

It’s not about eliminating stress, it’s about increasing your capacity to handle it and helping your body adapt and thrive under load.