pain barrier—a state of greatest pain beyond which the pain diminishes:
- The muscle is giving me some grief but as long as there is no long-term damage then I am willing to play through the pain barrier.
pain threshold—
1. the point beyond which a stimulus causes pain:
- The upper contour is the threshold of pain, above which the sensation is more of pain than of sound (and the result is more or less damaging to the ear).
2. the upper limit of tolerance to pain:
- Everyone has a different pain threshold but how much of that is due to what is going on in the mind is hard to say.