Autonomic dysreflexia (AD) is a potentially life-threatening condition unique to individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) above the sixth thoracic (T6) vertebrae in which blood pressure is suddenly increased. Although dangerous and unwelcome in the daily lives of people with SCI, some athletes with injury above the T6 level intentionally induce AD by inflicting suffering on parts of the body below the lesion where pain perception is lacking for the purpose of improving sports performance, effectively “throwing gasoline onto the fire”. This practice is known as boosting and very little is known about it from the perspectives of athletes themselves. Accordingly, we draw upon interview data with a sample of male, spinal cord injured wheelchair rugby players to investigate their experiences of AD and boosting and how they perceive and negotiate the fine line between these two conditions. The positive effects of AD and how these unpredictable responses are managed are explored, and the risks and moral justifications for boosting revealed. In doing so, we suggest that participants understand boosting via a process of experiential learning that involves them operating as ‘ethnophysiologists’ within an ableist ‘boostogenic’ environment that can foster moral disengagement and encourage athletes to take dangerous health risks.