What level of pain will you endure to get physically fit?

The Paradoctor gives some hints and tips on how to manage your pain and get the most from your workout

Added:Wed, 2nd December 09

Most of us seem to associate exercise with pain – remember the old saying “No pain, no gain!”?

So, you have decided to diet, exercise and get fit. You are doing this mainly because you want to feel good about yourself and in many cases because you want to look more attractive to others. Let’s face it, there is nothing wrong with feeling great and sexy!

So you start to mentally prepare for the journey ahead. All positive stuff so far, isn’t it? You start to take up exercise – thinking of how you are going to look, how fit you are going to become. It is like a physical makeover.

You have run our 5 k on the treadmill, you have done youe20 press ups, have pumped iron and done 50 squats. Then the “pain” sets in. Even top professionals that train for most of their lives on a daily base can still ache from exercising.

You now have a choice – you can feel the pain and accept it in a negative way because you are hurting, or you can think positively. You can learn to associate pain from exercise as something that is positive and good for you. By thinking this way you have nothing to lose but everything to gain. If your mind makes you believe that you do not feel pain, then you will not! Instead of being negative, be positive and mentally block that pain away as much as you can.

Now, I am not saying that pain will disappear completely, but you can be better prepared for it and turn it into a positive experience.

Here are a few hints and tips:

Don’t be frightened of pain

To be honest, none of us are really afraid of pain. Throughout our lives at some point we have all experienced physical pain. We know that exercise is often associated with some pain - after the 20th squat or chest press - and again afterwards. Acknowledge it! And say to yourself that you will be able to deal with it. You have before and you will now!

Concentrate on other areas of the body that feel GOOD!

How many times have you cut yourselves with a knife or paper cut? It is actually quite normal not to feel the pain until you have looked at the injury and actually seen the blood! This is because you have a mental association between blood and something that is serious and probably painful. So your mind then associates the blood with pain! So don’t mentally concentrate on the area that hurts – take your mind to another part of your body that feels good and enjoy the experience.

Concentrate of how relaxed and good you feel.

After exercising, the first thing we all tend do is have a hot shower. Generally, it takes a day or two before we start to feel the aches in our muscles.

When the aches start the best way to ease the pain is to sit down, relax and take a deep breath, inhaling for approximately. 5 seconds. Hold that breath for a further 5 seconds then exhale slowly for a further 5 seconds. This will calm your metabolism down taking away tension and relaxing the body. Do this a few times until you feel more comfortable and focus on being relaxed and feeling good.