No Pain, Tons of Gain

Monday, July 11th, 2011 at 9:19 am

The traditional mantra of the fitness industry is “No Pain, no gain”. I used to train, and be trained with pain during a great portion of my life. My gymnastic coaches, in order to increase my flexibility, would put enormous amounts pressure on me (by pressure I don’t mean that they screamed at me, I mean they would send the whole team on top of me). The pain was excruciating. No one ever cried, even though we all felt like it; we considered it a price that had to be paid to achieve excellence. This train of thought stuck with me through most of my life. I trained through pain thinking it would make me better, when the truth was that it was just making me older. When I turned 20 I could barely bend over, I had constant pain on my knees, elbows, and shoulders. I was a 20 year old trapped in a 60 year old body. The worst part of the story is I actually felt proud of my aches and pains. They just showed how I hard I was pushing myself.

Showing that we are in pain is a sign of weakness, but deal with it is a sign of courage and bravado. This concept is often exploited in sports movies, and we just love it, it never gets old. Nowadays I’m a bit smarter (not much though), and thanks to great coaches like Scott Sonnon I learned that that “No Pain = Tons of Gain”. Pain is how our body speaks to us. It’s how it tells us when something is wrong. Ignoring it is like ignoring a relatives scream for help. When something in your body hurts, it is asking for attention.

Pain can exist in two types: acute and chronic. Acute pain is predictable and usually only last a couple ours or days i.e a burn, scrape or headache. A chronic pain is something that goes outside the limits of normal (i.e how you usually feel). This could be a sprained joint that keeps on hurting months after you injured it or a stomach ache that occurs every month. Within these two types of pain we can also divide pain according to its intensity. There is also mild pain which can be compared to a soft whisper, and there is sharp pain that can be compared to a loud scream. Using these two characteristics we can learn how to deal with pain.

A mild acute pain is probably nothing to worry about, and probably has a known origin. Such would be a case of a bruise that you got from bumping into something. A sharp acute pain, is something you must listen to. These pain are an indication that you must stay still for a few days. There might be swelling (with no bruise), peeled skin or blood. If the pain is stays or the swelling doesn’t go away in a couple of days then you must seek medical attention. All chronic pain, whether it is mild or sharp, should require a visit to your doctor. Remember that pain is the language used by your body to tell you that something is wrong. You shouldn’t have to bare any pain for a long periods of time.

Don’t get me wrong. No pain doesn’t mean you have to train with low intensity. If you have ever workout out you have probably felt ” The Burn”. This burning sensation can be confused with pain, and I believe it is the pain that is referred to in the “No Pain, no gain” mantra. This type of pain is definitely something you may want to feel during your workouts; well this obviously depends on your goals.

How to Avoid or Prevent Pain as an Athlete.

Science has come to show that being flexible does not prevent injury so forget about static stretching before your workouts. I prefer submitting my body to mobility drills in order to warm-up my joint and tissues. Most sports injuries occur in the myotendinous region; this is where the tendon and the muscle join. Taking your joints along their full range of motion will help you increase blood flow to this region, helping it warm up and prepare for action. Some of the movements you will want to do are:

Ranges: moving your joints forward and back, and right and left.
Circles: moving forward, right, back and left
Infinities: moving them like a figure eight
Clovers.
Waves: similar to some dancing moves.

Watch this video for an introduction to the Intu-Flow program that I have used for injury prevention the past 2 years. It is also great for fast recovery. It’s almost magical.

If you are interested in buy the book or any of the videos you can go to the RMAX show at Rmaxinternational.com.

Having no pain while you train our compete will allow you to focus and improve on the small details of your strategy, instead of having to look for ways to avoid your pain. Give the exercises of Intu-Flow a chance, and I bet you won’t regret it.