No Pain No Gain!
This blog will continue to look at a collection of common myths around fitness and health. These are called myths but some may turn out to have some truth behind them! So read on and find out…..
No Pain No Gain
This is the most ridiculous saying which makes me cringe every time I see or hear it.
The myth is you have to go through pain in order to gain any fitness or health. But pain is the bodies response to tell you something is not right and you probably should stop doing it or harm may come to you.
For example putting your hand on a hot hob. The sensors in the hand pick up the increase in heat, send singles to the brain that work out have we felt this before. Yes, heat, are we in danger? Yes it’s hotter than the skin can cope with. Take your hand away. Luckily this takes very little time and there is also a safety reflex in the spine so the single doesn’t even have to be processed by the brain when we’ve built up enough experience. But the pain means the body is in danger and needs to stop/get away from the situation that is causing it. Same goes for an exercise. If it is causing you pain then there is a high chance you should stop, re assess what you are doing, is technique right? Is the load appropriate? Etc.
However, there is a sliding scale of pain. If you’ve ever been to A and E or seen a doctor with some injury they will general ask on a scale of 0-10 how painful is it. This is very subjective but should be taken seriously because it will relate to the seriousness of the injury.
Relating this to exercise. When performing static stretches these want to be a mild discomfort a 1-2 possibly 3 on the scale. Any less and there probably won’t be enough stress on the structures to encourage adaptation ie lengthening. But any more and the body wont adapt because there is too much stress and it will protect the muscles being stretched.
Pushing on there is a level of discomfort felt with some extreme exercise. When exerting yourself and heart rate raises then the body will be stressed and not necessarily feel comfortable. But this should not be painful. For example pushing yourself in the gym to lift weights can put you in a place of discomfort. Pushing yourself to sprint, again, can and should make you uncomfortable.
Having been involved with professional sport the only time where I loosely will accept a certain level of pain can be felt is in extreme cases. Rugby players hitting their body into anther, boxers punching each other, through to extreme endurance athletes.
It must be noted though, these athletes will have trained for years and developed a tolerance to the extremes they do. Plus the times they push into the extremes of pain are the most important cup, national, European, world and Olympic finals.
There is another time pain is accepted in exercise when guided by a physio. With certain injuries physios will ask clients to tolerate a certain amount of pain generally whilst performing rehab. However, this is in really strict parameters and they will closely guide clients.
Another pain that is part and parcel is the delayed onset muscle soreness or DOMS. This is the discomfort felt in muscles in the day/s after a bout of exercise. This again shouldn’t be so painful it’s debilitating, that means you’ve pushed too hard. But a mild discomfort is acceptable.
If you’re feeling pain through most of you exercises, STOP. Pain doesn’t mean you will gain. Then please get in touch and we can help you enjoy exercise and get healthier quicker.