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Atom/XML FeedWhy Pain Equals Gain
Disclaimer: This article advocates that you recognize pain in your workouts as a signal that you are "hitting the right spot" to encourage muscle growth. Please understand that there is a difference between the "discomfort"-type pain of hardcore lifting and the "I'm 'bout to pull a muscle/shatter a femur doing something idiotic" pain. Thank You.
| muscle: 1. One of the contractile organs of the body. 2. Animal tissue consisting predominantly of contractile cells. 3. Muscular strength. foundry: Factory where metal castings are produced. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
From childhood, we're conditioned to avoid pain anywhere we encounter it. Don't reach up to that hot stove. Be careful not to fall down. Get away from that fire! Now, if you're a kid, these admonitions all constitute pretty sound advice. Pain is often a good indicator that something *really* bad is about to befall you, like a nasty scalding or a broken bone.
Where we run into problems with this line of thinking, however, is when it comes to exercise. By its very nature, working out tends to provoke at the least, mild discomfort and at worst, significant pain -- when done correctly. But we humans, especially the United States-bred variety, seem to have it hardwired that evolution actually means letting our powers of physical exertion decline. In other words, it's good to be lazy. Abroad, Homer Simpson has come to personify the world's image of "the average American" - obtuse, overweight and perhaps a bit dangerous in our self-absorption. (You've got WHO minding the nuclear store!?!)
Whether you agree or not that we're all becoming a bunch of Homers, the fact that hordes of us have become overweight or obese because of our high-calorie American lifestyle, is incontrovertible. Obesity is five to eight times more common today than it was at the start of the 20th century, according to the International Sports Sciences Association. We are eating and loafing ourselves, literally, to death.
The idea behind MuscleFoundry is to change people's minds and attitudes to see that discomfort, pain and lack of ease - in the gym - can actually constitute a form of pleasure in and of themselves. Like red-hot steel being hammered into an exquisite sword, the pain of an intense workout signals that you are chiseling your body into a fine instrument.
Any location where you're able to exert yourself to the limit and beyond physically can be a MuscleFoundry. For me, over the years, it's been a succession of gyms where I could find a certain type of enthusiast: Bellowing behemoths who, from their guttural exclamations appeared to certainly not be concerned with a bit of namby-pamby discomfort. Being around people like that, even if you're somewhat of a wimp, will elevate you to, or near their physical level over time. Once again, speaking from personal experience on that one.
But when I couldn't locate a "hardcore" gym or its denizens, I carried my MuscleFoundry with me, in my mind. Often this required bringing along in the cassette or MP3 player a catalog of ass-kicking songs -- tunes that I knew would stimulate me into the properly "aggressive" state of mind. I don't mean aggressive as in ready to snap on the fool who forgot to rack his weights; but rather, aggressive to the point that I could attack the weights with unbridled fury. Sorry ladies, no Manilow.
Just about anything that ticked me off that day could fuel the fury - a disagreement with the boss, a beef earlier with the ol' lady, recalling anyone from the past who had done me wrong. When I couldn't think of anyone or anything that pushed my anger buttons, I'd simply make-believe - for instance, that I was a powerful hero like the Hulk; or that I possessed the horsepower equivalent of a Ferrari. And that moving whatever weight I had my hands on was but a mere trifle for these Xtreme Avatars to dispatch. For a while I even carried around a small, stuffed Donkey Kong on my cassette tape pouch -- to remind myself of just how powerful I wanted and needed to be.
When you're focused on the act of controlling the weight for rep after rep, and ordering your muscles and joints to go beyond their previous limits, AND thinking to yourself - "this is making such a great body right now, I can't give up now" - then pain merely becomes an afterthought.
At that point, mentally you are in the crucible, laboring in the hot forge. Instead of molten metal, though, your body burns with the accumulation of lactic acid. If you've truly connected with your own MuscleFoundry, you will eventually come to enjoy that "painful" sensation. As the U.S. Marines are famous for saying, "Pain is Weakness Leaving the Body."
You may indeed have to grunt, groan or exhale forcefully to squeeze out a few more reps. I won't recommend the elephant noises that I sometimes have heard from guys (it's always us dudes) at the gym. But a short grunt is usually tolerable and understood as necessary by most of your fellow gym-goers. Plus I admit, there's something satisfyingly primal about pushing up more weight because you were man - or woman - enough to grunt.
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR PROPER GRUNTING TECHNIQUE
"Aww man, that was hard!!! Jeez... this is hard stuff, buddy!" ~"Brutal" Bertil Fox. (CLICK ON IMAGE TO START VIDEO) Last time we checked, he was still in jail for murder, but man, what a great and intense bodybuilder! We know what you're thinking, but it doesn't appear to be that simple.
So how does all this pain amount to gain for you, aside from Nietzche's assertion, "that which does not kill us makes us stronger?" Well, two main positives, which we're going to go over right now.
Pain + No. 1: Short of outright injuring yourself - you don't wanna do that - vigorous exercise should produce countless micro-tears within your body's fiber-like muscle cells. That's one of the reasons it hurts so bad days after you exercise, especially if it's been awhile since you went at it hardcore. Your body repairs these cells even bigger and stronger than they were previously. Sort of like the Bionic Man, but on a much smaller budget.
Pain + No. 2: Once you have more muscle, you'll burn more calories merely by existing. You see, muscle requires energy just to sustain itself, let alone grow. Fat, on the other hand, is an energy storage device of the body. Think of fat as a battery and muscle as a machine. All things being equal, if you add muscle to your frame and eat the same amount of calories as before, you must lose fat. The downside to this is, if you're a skinny guy like I was, you'll have to really wolf down the calories to see substantial muscle gains. And not just any calories, you'll have to eat more protein than you likely ever have in your life. And that, my friends, is when it makes great economic sense to join a bulk superstore like Costco or Sam's Club.
I could write till the future Angus steaks come home about the corollary benefits of workout pain, but figure it best for you to marinate on the above concepts for now. So may you "forge" ahead in your future workouts. Come on and jump right in -- the fire's just fine :) Be strong, and live well.
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