Exercising Shouldn’t Be Painful

We all know the commonly used phrase with exercising “no pain, no gain”. This popular phrase has been around for many years and still used today. It’s longed believed that in order to exercise properly you need to cause self-harm and be sure that you’re sore for days on end to ensure you “worked something”. This phrase led to an ideology that is outdated, which is to make your workouts as painful as possible, which is wrong.

The reason that it’s wrong to make your exercise routine as painful as possible is that it doesn’t lead to better results, in fact it goes in the opposite direction. It can lead you to possible injuries, reduced frequency, burn out, exhaustion, higher levels of stress, and many more unfavorable outcomes. Getting sweaty and sore are not indicators of a good or productive workout. We can sit in your car with the heat on high and I can hit you with a hammer, you’ll get sweaty and sore, but you won’t get better.

Exercise shouldn’t be painful or cause pain, in reality, it should be helping you improve in all areas of your life such as playing with the kids, doing chores around the house, going on hikes or vacation, and other activities of daily living. When you are doing exercises that help you move and feel better you get better which is what you should want, physical improvement to increase physical capabilities.

When it comes to exercise remember that the idea of “no pain, no gain” is not a way of measuring your success. Instead you should be focusing on being able to improve consistently by seeing your life and the activities in it getting easier. You don’t need to inflict pain on your body in order for it to get better. You should do what you can with what you have and make gradual steps towards increasing its difficulties for long lasting results.

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