No you don't want to dull the pain before a workout..I was speaking of afterwards, I know my shoulder can get sore after chest/shoulder day, and sometime when working biceps. I find 800 mg Ibuprofen really knocks it out, so I can sleep better. Alot of hard core guys have torn muscles because the use recs (pain killers) before workouts....I must confess I experimented with Nubain pre- workout back in the day when it was really popular...glad I'm away from that now.