Training = Pain?

I was inspired to write this post after some feedback about the "pain" being an integral part of some training and certain practices. If you are spending any of your time training whether physically or not you will probably agree that there is pain involved. Not suffering, which a psychological condition made ultimately by choice, but pain. "It hurts!" you may be saying to yourself. Or "Why am I doing this to myself?" Well, the reason you are doing it to yourself is because you are convinced that it will bring you some sort of benefit, most likely a long term benefit which translates into happiness.

To zoom in on the topic a bit - when you are working out some group of muscles there a threshold when there is a painful feeling. It makes you cringe. Sometimes with pleasure. in fact many will claim that they are looking for that feeling as a side effect of training. But that's a "good" pain. You have convinced yourself that your muscle will recover and grow as a result. The ends, therefore justify the means. Another example is how in martial arts training when applying joint locks during practice, although painful, they are not hurtful if applied correctly and even serve as a sort of the ultimate stretch + acupressure of tendons done by one practitioner to the other. You are being asked to "relax into it" and allow for the mind to neutralize the painful effect of the joint lock application. The result of such practice is that you are learning more about the joints and the limits of their rotation. You are also learning about the muscles surrounding the joints, as they are very good indicators when there is too much pressure, or the technique is done incorrectly i.e. - done too fast, abrasively, and without the feeling for the structure. That is also a good pain.

There are other kinds of pain that are less desirable and should be avoided. In other words - the pain is created not for learning purposes, but often as an accident and a side effect of inaccurate application and simply wrong understanding of the purposes of training. One such example comes to us from the sport of football (American). I remember when a good friend of mine was playing "tackle" with his buddies, and because of the nature of the game he had some pretty serious injuries in his shoulder. Well, when we met I asked him to tackle me, and when he did I simply yielded in a timely manner as I would during my Tai Chi practice and allowed for his attack to pass through. It was interesting that his response was somewhere along the lines "this is not how we play - you don't understand the game!" And when I questioned his parameters of understanding it turned out that there was no reasonable explanation why people are banging into each other thus injuring each other - it simply became a habit, transformed into the "nature of the game". Force against force. Now I consider this kind of pain "bad" and something that should be avoided because it can be avoided. A little bit smarter and your foe passes right by....Of course, I am not a football player and don't understand many things about the game, but this one seems to be logical enough.

For those of you my friends who are in the competitive martial arts, the "bad" pain cause by a low kick to a shin is a well known but common example, that can be avoided not by blocking by counter block, but by simply raising the knee up getting the shin out of the way, or simply moving the foot away. While this may be a "smart" talk for many who are in training please remember that your longevity as a player, a fighter etc. depends on how much injury you were able to sustain, so avoid "bad" pain, keep training and take care of your bodies!

With Best Regards,

Iggy.