No Pain, No Gain

I’ve been fortunate as a former athlete to have competed and trained with some of the best athletes in the world and what I’ve found through my experiences is that these athletes never shied away from pain. That is a part of what made these athletes so great. I come from an athletic and training background where it was instilled in my head that with no pain there is no gain. I absolutely believe that this concept is very true.

Too many people (and I am talking about both men and women) stop their set right when they start to feel the burn in the muscle they are exercising. Your workout doesn’t start at rep 1, it starts once you feel that burn. I had a coach that used to tell me when I was fatigued and in pain in practice, “this is when the workout starts”. I’ve never forgotten those words and I take those words with me every time I train. Remember pain is just a temporary thing and it is not going to kill you. In fact, you will experience greater muscle growth and burn more calories throughout the day if you can work through that burn and pain and execute that set properly.

I have a male friend that whenever he is doing bicep curls, or any other exercise for that matter, stops the set as soon as he feels that sharp burn. And many times that set is stopped at rep 5. Sometimes I will ask him, “What are you doing?” And his reply is, “I can’t do any more because I was starting feeling a burn.” This is the same guy that wonders why his body has always looked the same and has never improved. The reason is because he has always trained that way and has never made more of an effort other than that.

You can’t possibly think you’re going to make any positive physical improvements training like that. I have another friend who is a female who I used to train, but I stopped training her because I honestly felt it was a waste of time; she wouldn’t work hard for me in the gym and, to be honest, was really lazy. She would be working out while talking on her cell phone the whole time. If you can talk on your phone while working out, then you haven’t done anything and you really aren’t doing anything.

The best way to monitor if you are working a muscle properly is if you are feeling a burn in the muscle. For the people who stop once they feel that burn, you truly are limiting your maximum muscle growth. My advice is don’t give into the burn; try to work through the burn and if you consistently think this in your mind when exercising, I can guarantee you will make more positive growth physically because you have maximized the muscle. This will allow you to burn more calories throughout the day as well. When is there no pain there really is no gain.