No Pain, No Gain
The theory of no pain, no gain is stupid. I can’t make it any clearer, and yet, a lot of us grew up with that theory, and still subscribe to it. “Work it until it hurts, feel the burn, then do 2 more.” Does that sound familiar? Indeed. Most athletics was built on no pain, no gain.
But it’s wrong, and here’s why: neuroscience. Pain is your brain talking to your body, trying to get you to make a change in what you are doing, or a position you are in, or a load on a particular part of your body. If you move concrete blocks to make a fence in your yard, and your back hurts, do you generally stop moving the blocks around? Not usually. Because you need to get the fence finished. You take Advil later, telling yourself that the pain isn’t so bad (it is!) and it’s normal to hurt after moving concrete blocks. It isn’t, if you listen to your body. Start listening to what your brain is telling you, and figure out how to respond without stupidity involved.
And the next time you feel pain, STOP. Get help, slow down, change your position to lessen the load, but for heaven’s sake, do not continue doing whatever it is that is causing the pain. Your brain will escalate the pain until you can no longer move for a long period of time, maybe forever if you continue to ignore it.
Living pain free is normal. And it’s Aging Intelligently.
The kind of “no pain, no gain” I like to hear doesn’t have to do with injuries or real pain, just pushing through when your muscles are fatigued or you are a bit winded. 😉 But if anything hurts, or feels strained, then I stop until it is sorted out.
As a collegiate rower, the meaning of “no pain, no gain” didn’t change persay, but the importance of keeping our team training schedule did. Optimal health was not the goal – winning was. We believed we would recover in the off-season, and we all did. But that’s no life-long fitness philosophy.
Right now I am training for a tough mudder run – a 10 Mile course full of inane macho obstacles and mud – I am so excited I could spit! Sadly, ever since the new year, I have only trained for a maximum of 2 weeks at a time before getting sick, or feeling some strange pain. It sounds like an excuse – “my neck hurt so I haven’t been to class”, or “my foot has a little pain in the heel, so I haven’t run the last 2 weeks,” but that’s okay, because I have given myself permission to do what’s best for me.
It sounds like your brain is talking to you. YOU might be excited about this crazy tough mudder run, but maybe your BRAIN doesn’t trust you enough to keep you safe.The brain’s job is to predict. Maybe it can’t predict well enough to allow you to move forward with this run. So it keeps causing you problems. You might try more signals to the brain and see if that helps: joint mobility drills, eye drills, respiration, etc. But if it hurts, stop! No pain, no gain gets you nowhere. If you don’t feel ready when the “run” happens, don’t push it. There will be another run on another day. Maybe even more insane than this one.