One of the least talked about aspects of exercise and strength training is how it feels. It is joked about but rarely addressed in a serious manner. Two camps seem to exist, a big camp of exercise hurts in a negative way and a small group of “embrace the pain!”.

The feeling of intense muscular exertion is unique and acute meaning it has a lot of shock factor. Furthermore overall body effort naturally alarms you that your energy is draining. So how do you switch from the out of shape camp to the in shape “let it burn” group…..?

You don’t have to. Your body is designed to acclimatize to stress. Given practice the level of discomfort becomes bearable. You adjust as your system realizes that exercise is good stress not bad. Then you can push yourself as needed without the backlash of being demotivated by the uncomfortable nature of exercise. The so called pain becomes a challenge to plow through and it actually becomes somewhat fun. Surviving the intensity of loading your muscles and working them hard becomes its own reward.

Be well, be strong,

Andrew and Tierney