The no pain no gain idiom is overly used. However it is great to prove a point. The initial usage of no pain no gain is meant to push you the hardest you can in every single workout to get the best benefits. It is true that pushing yourself beyond your mental barriers grants you the best improvements. Pain has another reason to exist.
Pain is a great tool that our body has to warn us how far we are pushing ourselves. So pushing through it will grant you gains, you have to be carefull. Pain is also the last line of defence of our body to prevent injuries. A great example of how important pain is for our body can be found in the book “Fear nothing” written by Lisa Gardner. When someone doesn’t feel pain they don’t get a warning when something is turning bad. Even worse when someone who can’t sense pain breaks their arm, they wont feel it. This genetic dissorder is called Congenital Insensitivity to Pain with Anhidrosis. (CIPA)
Most people want to avoid pain, and discipline is usually painfull. – John C. Maxwell
A other part of pain is psychological pain, in most situations it can be described as discomfort. When we want to work towards a new goal we need to take the necessary steps. Taking these steps will never be easy, if it would be everyone would do it.
Some people say “pain is fun”. While in first instance this doesn’t make sense, there lies some truth in it. If we look at mild pain as pain we can look at it as a point to push through. When we get to learn our body better we can experiment if we can push through or if we should take the safe route and take a rest. When you have worked out for more and more years you instinctly know what situation requires what action. If you can push through safely or if you need to back off. The same reasoning goes for when to implement a deload week. When you feel you are about to get injured if you continue just build in a week for you body to recover from you heavy training.