Training can be hard and painful. I’ve lost count of all those times when my body was screaming out in pain from going hard up a hill on my bike or from doing too many jump lunges in a circuit at the gym. In fact, this happens every time I workout because one of my mantras is to always give it my all since I’m already doing it. And to give it my all, I can never give up no matter how painful it is.
I teach myself little tricks to get myself through all these hard workouts and one of them is that I’ve taught myself to love and embrace the pain. Most people stop because they cannot push themselves past the pain and once they feel an ounce of it, they will tell themselves it’s time to give up and go home. If you want results, you need to condition your body AND your mind to accept and love the pain.
How to condition yourself to love pain:
- Coach Yourself. Tell yourself the pain is a part of the process even if you have to repeat a mantra over and over to yourself: I love this, I love this, I love this (which is something I totally do).
- Think positive. When pain is paired with a negative connotation, it is much harder to push past. Instead, think of it as a good thing that will help you in the long run and then embrace that concept. Both talking to yourself constructively and thinking positively is an extremely powerful and motivating tool!
- Visualize. Imagine the pain running down your legs making it stronger as it follows a path that will eventually leave your body. Remind yourself of all the benefits you will receive and visualize your new body after that pain makes its way through.
Pain is weakness leaving the body.
- Focus. Focus on your workout, your breathing and the muscles you are supposed to be working. Doing this will remind you that the pain is doing nothing but good for your body AND take your mind off the pain.
- SUCK IT UP. Tell yourself it’s not going to last forever and stop being a crybaby over it.
There is the pain that tells you are working hard and pushing yourself to the limits and then there is pain that tells you that you are doing something wrong such as sudden, sharp pains, limping and pain that doesn’t go away. If you experience any of that, then nothing I wrote in this post applies to you. Take a break and find out what’s wrong!
How do you condition yourself to love pain?
