Does Pain while Training Mean it’s Time to Stop? – Part 2

‘No pain no gain’. We’ve all heard it. But is it true? Does fitness training have to hurt, and when it does, how can you learn to keep going and push through that ‘pain barrier’? Well, first of all, sometimes pain is a bad sign, and you shouldn’t try to push through it. See my post ‘When it really starts to hurt…should you stop?’ for advice on when pain is a sign to quit.

So when can you keep going? For most people serous about fitness and training, most sessions hurt a leads a little. Muscles strain and ache and lungs burn. These are symptoms of pushing yourself, and of effort. That said, it is perfectly possible to get fit – although slowly – without major discomfort.

Gentle and measured progression in weight or cardio training doesn’t have to hurt; you still need to sweat and get your heart rate up, but you don’t have to push yourself to the point of collapse. But if you want to get fit fast, or are training for a particularly demanding event, then you need to learn to deal with discomfort and push through it.

Stretching

Some aspects of fitness training should never hurt – if you feel pain during stretching, then you’ve pushed your stretch too far and you are tearing muscles. The resulting repairs and scarring will actually make your muscles stiffer and less flexible, so pain in stretching is counterproductive. A good stretch should start out feeling tight, and gradually loosen over several seconds. If it doesn’t loosen, ease off a little.

Weight Training

In weight training, muscles hurt because of lactic acid build up over repetitions, and because of tiny muscle tears as the blood supply increases to the working muscle. Neither is anything to worry about. Lactic acid build up, felt as muscle fatigue, will eventually force you to stop; you won’t be able to complete the rep.

You can push yourself well into fatigue to develop fitness and increase your ‘lactic acid threshold’ or your point of fatigue, as long as you are safe. If your muscle fatigue is adversely affecting your form, you are at risk of injury, so ease off.

You also need to have sufficient recovery time between sets to allow the lactic acid to clear, to be able to attempt your next set effectively. Skimping on recovery time won’t help your session – you’ll reach muscle fatigue faster, complete fewer reps, and progress more slowly. As long as you allow plenty of recovery between sets, and can complete each rep with correct form and technique, you can push yourself well into your lactic acid threshold.

The same goes with the little muscle tears. It’s the repair of these tears that helps to build muscle and increase strength, so they are nothing to worry about. However, you allow the muscle to repair itself, and grow, you need to have sufficient recovery time between your resistance sessions – at least a full 24 hours, and preferably 48 hours. Any less, and you will inhibit the healing process, your progress will be slower, and you will risk more serious injuries.

Cardio Training

Knowing Just How Far To Push Yourself Exercising Will Stop You Overdoing it!

Knowing Just How Far To Push Yourself Exercising Will Stop You Overdoing it!

In cardio training, pain comes from many different sources. Again, lactic acid is the main culprit. Running or cycling up hills, and sprint or high intensity sessions, are where it occurs most visibly. You’ll recognize it again as muscle fatigue and even muscle ache.

Like with weight training, as long as you are careful of certain conditions, you can safely push your lactic threshold – in fact, you should if you are serious about your training and want to really develop speed, power, or endurance. As long as you can hold good form, and you do not feel dizzy or experience headache or chest pain, and you can breathe (even if you’re breathing heavily), you can push your limits.

In fact, much of what we call fitness is actually developing a higher lactic threshold – the point at which lactic build up causes you to have to stop. Only by pushing your lactic threshold can you improve your endurance and speed. If you are simply trying to get fitter, you don’t need to work as hard; if you are training for a major competition or event, you may need to push a lot harder.

Other cardio pain is more fundamental. The ‘burning lung’ pain of major cardio effort comes from the lungs expanding rapidly to try to meet massive demand for oxygen form the muscles. Again, your oxygen intake has its limits, and this will limit the performance of your muscles. By pushing on through this discomfort, your lungs will actually begin to build new tissue and capillaries for more effective function – in other words, your lung capacity will increase.

Know When Not To Continue

There is no reason not to push through that burning feeling during a major effort, such as a hill sprint on a bike or a an all-out blast while running, but you should not carry that level of effort for anything but a very short period – a few minutes at most. If your lungs are burning and you aren’t stepping up the effort, chances are something else is wrong, and if your discomfort is linked to an effort that will go beyond four to five minutes, you are working too hard.

Allow Recovery Time

Like with resistance training, after a major ‘lung busting’ effort, you need to allow your body ample recovery time to clear out the lactic build up, and re-establish oxygen levels in your muscles. This is why high intensity intervals are always short, with comparatively long recovery times. And the same goes with recovery between sessions – if your cardio session was intense enough to push you to fatigue, or your did high intensity intervals or several all out efforts, you need to give your body at least 48 hours before your next hard session to repair and recover. Hitting another tough session too soon will impede your progress – try an easy steady state or ‘active recovery’ session instead.

Now you know when pain hits, when to stop, and when to keep going. If you are going to push through, how do you do it, and why are some people better at it than others? See the next post in this series ‘Does Pain while Training Mean it’s Time to Stop? – Part 3′ for advice.