I’ve heard the 'just push through exercise pain' bunch often enough. And I’ve watched those poor victims of The Biggest Loser pushing through the pain too. And I’m sorry I just don’t buy the whole no pain no gain idea!
Now if you have masochistic tendencies and get a kick out of pain (be that exercise pain or any other kind), or you aspire to be an elite athlete - well who I am to stop you.
But be aware, pushing through pain is one of the symptoms of both
bigorexia
(a type of muscle dysmorphia) as well as
exercise bulimia
(which is excessive exercising).
And admittedly I've been known to once do what I'm now telling you NOT to do. I pushed through pain and landed up with ITB (Illio-tibial band syndrome) which stopped me from exercising for almost 6 months!
Pain is your body's voice
As I’m concerned pain is there for a good reason. It’s my body trying to catch my attention – it’s my body’s natural way of saying: “Hey, let up a moment will you – I’m trying to tell you this is too much, too soon.”
That’s the function of exercise pain – it’s there to tell you you’re over-doing things. It’s a bit like the function of hunger - it’s you body’s way of letting you know you have a need for fuel. They’re both signs your body is trying to get your attention and communicate with you.
We need to honour our pain
Um… this brings me to another favourite hobby horse guaranteed to get me onto my soapbox. You know all these weight loss products to ‘suppress your appetite?’ That’s precisely What we don’t need.
When we suppress our hunger or our pain - we’re trying to work against our biology. No wonder we feel like we’re having a constant uphill battle with our body and ourselves. Our body is only trying to protect us from ourselves so that it can stay healthy!
Same thing with exercise pain. We need to honour it – not ignore it, not take it away with pain-killers. When your body is in pain – it’s for a reason. For example, It may be there because we are physically not taking good care of it. (like when we’re over-doing things)
Exercise Pain can have an emotional component
Because thoughts are energy - and impact on and create our body (mind becomes matter), pain can also have a strong emotional component as well. If you've ever read Louise Hays book: ' You can Heal your Life' you'll know what i"m talking about • Where is your body in pain? • What is the function of that body part? • When you add the two together, what might your body be trying to communicate to you?
For example:
If you have a stiff neck – the neck allows us to move our heads (holder of our thoughts) around. Are you possibly being inflexible in your thinking?
Or if it’s your back - our spine is what supports our entire body. Are you feeling unsupported by life?
Pain is there to look at, step back from and see what your body is trying to tell you. It’s not there to ignore, suppress and over-ride.
Try our fabulous exercise (a new window will open) to hear what your body is trying to tell you - it'll help you access your
Body's Intuition
Exercise pain made me stop exercising
I started out (and I know I’m not alone here) with so many exercise programs where I zealously tried to do too much too soon. What I got in return was exercise pain in the form of injuries and massive doses of stiffness. And as a result I hated it too.
It wasn’t fun! And often it made me give up before I'd really even started.
Instead of flooding my system with health-enhancing molecules of joyous emotion – I was flooding them with molecules of resentment -for-‘having to do it’.
Exercising when I pushed through the pain and did too much too soon left me feeling tired and exhausted ... not vibrant and more alive.
The irony is that I never dreamed that when I became mentally fitter about exercise, so that it became body-fun, it would actually land up generating energy for me. But I had to start with a mental makeover first. And when I was exercising with pain and pushing through it- very often when I had exercised, I felt like I had to reward myself, (usually with food of course), for having been ‘good’.
I had to reward myself for having done something I hated. Now being active is like a reward on its own - I never thought I'd say that.
When I was a playful, running-around-all-day-child, I never felt as if that was ‘good’ - it was just what came naturally.
Nowadays, exercise is play, I actually enjoy it. I do it because I want to and because my day just doesn’t feel as wonderful when I don’t.
I love to get on my bicycle when I'm feeling stressed or overwhelmed - I always come back more relaxed and with a clear head.
I love to put on my hiking boots in the anticipation of seeing beautiful vistas which leave me feeling in awe of life, peaceful and calm.
I even love to do my situps and leg lifts in front of the telly - and the bonus is that now I stay awake to see the programs too.
If you find the ditch-diets-live-light website useful, please recommend it to your friends.
We have many requests to link to our website - and it always thrills us to know that what we are doing is valued, so thanks in advance for sending visitors our way. Please copy the text below onto any page of your website to link to us.
Take part in our poll and win get our Thank-You e.course
By the way, I researched and researched ways to have an online business and where it kept leading me was back to one place... Ken Envoy's Sitesell. My research was good - Ken consistently over-delivers and if you're looking for simply the best website hosting and optimization tools out there.... look no further, click here to see if it would benefit you too.
Um… this brings me to another favourite hobby horse guaranteed to get me onto my soapbox. You know all these weight loss products to ‘suppress your appetite?’ That’s precisely What we don’t need. 
When I was a playful, running-around-all-day-child, I never felt as if that was ‘good’ - it was just what came naturally. 
