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Good pain. Bad pain

Pushkaraj S Shirke is a K11 trained fitness consultant

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Pushkaraj S Shirke
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“No gain without pain” is a popularly flaunted line in the fitness world. People constantly see motivational Instagrams and videos that glorify pain and pushing through the pain. Training despite pain is celebrated as a test of your determination and people make it a self-esteem issue at times to push through any and all pain in the gym. But is that really good? Are all kinds of pain the same? And does pushing through means heading towards progress  or disaster?

Let’s ignore the stupid but exciting movie scene where Milkha Singh runs despite fractures and the rock tears off his plaster. Look at the logical facts for a change. 

Pain is your body’s reading of discomfort and of repair in progress. And reading the signs wrong can lead to abusing the body beyond repair.  Pain is of various kinds, but in the context of training, we need to look at two basic types — sharp, shooting pain which I call BAD PAIN, and soreness and throbbing muscles, which I call GOOD PAIN.

Bad Pain is when you have any kind of shooting pain. It is generally related to an injury. Training despite that will only aggravate the injury and slow down the healing process. If a runner has shin splints, it is advisable to heal first before you run again. And during that period of healing, to supplement your body with nutrition to enable the healing process to speed up. Also, during that period of rest from impact based activity like running that would aggravate the shin splints, the athlete can train faculties that assist the act of running, without impact — like weight training to build muscle to compensate for the atrophy caused by long hours of running. 

Training through the shooting, sharp pain of a muscle tear, nerve damage, cartilage tear, fracture or the likes, is not only stupid in the short term, but also detrimental to the long term progress of an athlete or individual.

Good Pain on the other hand, actually feels good. Its like a dull soreness or a sense of contraction of the muscles that indicates that the muscles are not torn, but muscle microtrauma has occurred — which will lead to the muscle now getting stronger. If you are training correctly, you will rarely feel a sharp burning sensation in your muscles or pain in your muscles immediately post workout. Good Pain always sets in slowly, often the day after or even later. Muscle soreness that sets in a day after, is commonly referred to as DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) and it is one of the most definitive signs of a good workout. 

Always remember, train smart, train strong, and listen to your body. Pain is your friend, only if you know how to read it.

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