We have an addiction to pain and it’s only getting worse. For decades, people have associated pain with the benefits. The “It is just the cost of health and beauty” or “No pain, No gain” mentality has become the expectation of many who decide to start working out. We seek out ways to torture ourselves, trying to “Feel the Burn”, while slowly chipping away at our health and daily function.
The problem is constantly destroying your body in the name of health and vitality, while suffering through endless hours of pain and soreness is not what most people need nor is it a prerequisite to success. In many cases, it leads to injury and health conditions that take years to rectify and for many who need it most it serves as a road block to participation.
Pain does not equal benefit.
Instead of trying to kill ourselves on a regular basis, we need to be searching for ways to improve our lives outside of the gym or our performance in competition with the least amount of risk and abuse to the body as possible. Preservation, protection and optimization are the name of the game.
The next time you go to workout in any fashion take a moment before you start and look at what you are trying to do there. Are you trying to improve in your sport? Are you chasing a pain free round of golf? Are you going to do the things you need to do to see those benefits and feel them long term? Or, are you trying to beat yourself senseless and hoping that it will magically carry over when you can finally walk again in three days, if you don’t hurt anything in the process.
Effective workouts and long term training plans that give you the benefits you want without the pain and injury do exist. As a matter of fact, they are the bedrock of what we do Corax Strength and Performance and when we work with our veterans from The Raven Initiative.
Our daily promise is:
1) Not to hurt anyone or put them in the position to get hurt
2) Train in a way that provides the greatest benefit and leaves you feeling good afterword.
In many cases, we have been able to mitigate soreness from training to the point of non-existence or brief passing encounters. Pain free fitness is possible for everyone, no matter how hard it might be to believe.
Brutalizing ourselves and chasing the pain has been leading us down the wrong path for longer than I have been alive. It is time for us all to pull our heads out of the their hole in the ground and look at where it has gotten us. Training injuries have become the norm and not being able to walk is a badge of honor but they do nothing to help us get to where we want to go.