This slogan has literally been beaten into us throughout our development. You’ll find this logo on walls in gyms and clubs with sweating bodies (in pain) lying on the floor below. You’ll also find it on inspirational Facebook and media posts adorned with athletic bodies. Usually it’s followed up by the saying “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”. But what if you’re already in pain? Will you get more gain? Is it possible that what doesn’t kill you just damages you badly?
If you’re looking to compete at the Tokyo Olympic Games you should expect to feel some pain to get gain. Getting to the pinnacle of athletic competition requires not only a great set of genes, but extraordinary commitment and physical training at the limits of human tolerance. However, if you’re part of the other 99.99999…% of the population we’d suggest you should approach these slogans with caution. Remember sport at the highest level isn’t about health. It’s about seeing how hard you can push yourself before you or your competitor breaks.
Pain is your brain suggesting that your body is under threat of being damaged. Ignoring this message can be a poor choice. Working through pain, or ignoring the pain due to a long term injury can cause irreversible damage in some cases. Working out hard has its place, but for a tired body in pain you will get better results with TLC rather than pain and suffering. Less intense forms of movement such as yoga and Pilates and a well-designed gym programme taking stress in to account will give better results to a tired body. Flogging yourself with intense physical training may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
The philosophy we have at the Kaizen Centre is that we take stress and the health status of our clients in to account when we decide what exercise intensity is appropriate. If you turn up to our centre after a frantic day at work, with little sleep and fast food on the run you will get a programme that will be relatively low intensity. Pushing yourself hard when you have high stress levels and poor recovery is a recipe for disaster. It’s time to change these slogans that inspire us to beat ourselves up, and start taking care of ourselves!
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