Alright, welcome back everyone. This week, I want to talk about pain and why it's important. Why it's important that you feel pain and discomfort every so often.
A while back one of my clients changed my nick name to the Legion of Pain. I’m not sure why, haha! But anyways, a lot of times people say that I have a high pain tolerance and that may be true, but I didn't gain that tolerance overnight.
You build up that tolerance by doing things that make you feel uncomfortable over and over and over again.
The more you feel that pain, the more you build up that tolerance and the more it feels comfortable to you.
If you go out running and you run up and down hills, you know what that struggle feels like, and so you know what to expect.
Another example is when I was training for the Spartan World Championships in Lake Tahoe this past year. There's a portion during the race where you have to get into a freezing cold water for a short swim and I knew the water was going to be very cold!
I read about the previous years race and how a lot of people that weren't accustomed to the cold would go into shock, panic, lose their breath, get discombobulated, and many had to drop out of the race. So in preparation for that, I got an ice bath and I would sit in that ice bath for a few minutes every single day to learn what the body goes through and get accustomed to that discomfort. What does it feel like when I first get in? It's gonna take my breath away, okay, got it! Learn to get my breath back after two or three minutes, how does my body feel? Then after I get out of the water, what's that feel like? And so you know what to expect and therefore your tolerance for that pain goes up!
Get yourself out there, get uncomfortable, put yourself into uncomfortable situations and eventually that pain tolerance will go up. That will also make you stronger and more capable of doing other difficult things in life as well.
If your kids are crying or you have to walk across the parking lot at Costco, it's not a big deal! There's no sense in getting upset because that is nothing compared to what you did earlier that day. I sat in a freezing cold ice bath or I completed a very challenging workout, this is nothing. Let’s do this!
So build that pain tolerance, build that discomfort, and get out there and get strong.
See you next week!
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