NO PAIN NO GAIN?
I sat down on the snow, too exhausted even to cry. “I just can’t go any further” I said to my guide; he laughed! I was climbing Mt Cotopaxi in Ecuador 8 years ago, and we were nearing the summit (5897m altitude). I’d been walking steadily since we got up at 1am with almost no sleep and little food in me (altitude does that to you). The guide laughed because he knew how close we were and he knew I was going to make it! As I staggered onto the summit the first rays of dawn sunlight hit the snow and I immediately forgot the pain of climbing all night on an empty stomach. The beauty of the moment washed away the physical exhaustion. I’m sure you also have experiences like this; the physical sensations weren’t gone but the emotional sensations dominated.
No pain no gain, right?
Ingrained in language and culture, we’ve absorbed this phrase as a kind of motto, a truth. What do you think? How does that little phrase make you feel?
For some of us it’s ok, we like the fight, we accept the challenge and we’ll go through quite a lot if the end is worth it. For others, it’s a red flag; pain is bad, it hurts, it’s not healthy and they shy away from it. I’d say anyone who does regular exercise (especially outdoors) knows something about pain and their own tolerance levels. And probably most people accept that pain is involved in getting fitter, stronger or sometimes just getting back to your front door!
I’ve been investigating my own relationship with pain recently after an over-training injury completely shut me down for a few months. At one point I couldn’t even walk without pain in my lower leg so I started to pay close attention to the sensations each day. I did some research into the science of pain while I was forced to rest and found some pretty shocking things.
Firstly, we now know that pain is a message to the brain not a sensation. The nerve endings are triggered in some unusual way, for example high temperature, and lightning fast signals are sent to the brain with the information. The brain equally quickly processes and analyses the information in the light of: past experiences, current state of mind and location, even future plans. Based on this, it decides on an appropriate action. If our example of high temperature is my hand getting burnt on a hot surface then the action will be fast withdrawal of the hand of course. This is a straightforward situation. But if the ‘pain’ signal is because I’ve rolled my ankle, the brain will use previous memory of this plus my current emotional and physical state to tell me whether I should stop running right now or go easy but carry on.
I guess what happened with my injury was so slow that my brain didn’t have enough ‘pain’ information to stop me from running before it became chronic. How much did my positive mental state and motivation to keep my fitness and strength levels affect my brain’s decision not to tell me to investigate the extreme tightness of my legs sooner?! Probably quite a lot. Now I have a memory stored regarding this injury. In fact I was a bit nervous returning to running, followed an careful plan and even took a few days off when I rolled my ankle because I could feel pain in the same area. On the other hand, I have a greater intimacy with the muscles and workings of my lower leg and the different sensations I feel when I run or do any movement.
So how can we use this understanding of pain? Maybe to help us appreciate what each injury teaches us! It genuinely is useful info which will help protect us in the future. That’s not always what I want to hear personally to be honest but this viewpoint on pain suggests that it’s true. But also, I think it explains why sometimes we suffer more during exercise. Have you ever felt that the same hill is much harder on some days than others? I certainly have and there are myriad practical reasons like how much sleep we had, how much training we’ve done over the last few days, what we’ve eaten and how well we have hydrated. But there are also less tangible factors – our inner state, whether we’re stressed or relaxed; mood and emotions play their part in how we perceive the exertion of each moment. The fibres of the body send messages of stress when we work them hard and the brain will interpret the stress according to level, persistence, type plus all the non physical factors mentioned before. This is not to say that how you feel is inaccurate or unimportant but when we feel that we’re struggling we may in fact just feel like this is the case and our performance will be the same or possibly even better than imagined. We can also be aware that if we’re under a lot of emotional stress then a challenging long run over slippery ground might be overwhelming. Is that the right day to push on to the next big goal?
I try never to let an emotional state stop me from moving my body – instead, I adapt the workout. If I feel very tired I’ll offer myself a choice of routes or plan a possible ‘escape’ in case I really don’t feel I can complete the full thing. And what I usually find is I’m fine once I get out there because the tiredness was related to sitting too much or bad lighting or over thinking, which reduces once I’m out in nature. But I have used the ‘escape routes’ sometimes when exhaustion creeps in or when, on one memorable winter run, I face-planted into a large muddy puddle!
Other occasions I’ve totally pushed through and wondered how. I read/hear stories of those doing multi-day events who’ve carried on despite injury which slowly healed itself during the course of the days. For example Robbie Balanger who ran across the States had blisters, plantar fascitis and shin splints but still made it on time! He rested when necessary but didn’t stop when most of us would have done. Stupid and lucky or able to read the ‘pain’ signals incredibly well? Who knows.
I’m neither urging you to go easy on yourself nor push through pain. But I think the topic of pain is worth exploring for many reasons. This is just the tip of the iceberg…
I tell my yoga students not to ‘push into pain’ but I also ask them to be conscious of the mind’s tendency to freak out when stress is experienced or new territory is discovered. Sometimes I go easy, sometimes I go through but I think there’s value in appreciating the very real body-mind connection that shapes our experience of whatever sport or activity we’re engaged in. Whether that’s pain or pleasure…or both!
I research my topics best I can and base as much as possible on the current findings of science as well as my own experience. The following links were part of my research for this topic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TN1r25wAoI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwd-wLdIHjs
‘Endure’ by Alex Hutchison Phd, HarperCollins, 2019