We have all heard the saying “No Pain No Gain” where did the saying come from? It is another gym term
actually made popular in the 1980’s by Jane Fonda. I think that most people that believe the “No Pain,
No Gain”philosophy is missing the point.
I do believe in pain for gain, physically and mentally, all accomplishment worth while take hard work, and discomfort, discomfort builds strength in ALL areas of life, But physically training until you are unable to
move is unnatural!
I do believe in testing yourself once in a while, but a man that is life time trainer knows if he needs to
pick up the pace.
Can you imagine early man or ancient militaries training until they were so sore they they couldn’t run or fight?
The problem is MOST MEN are NOT bodybuilders, power lifters, competitive athletes so why push yourself
into a situation that causes such pain you struggle to move?
Personally I trained the “No Pain, No Gain” philosophy, and spent most of my life living with muscle
soreness, BUT I had to go to work, in a manual labor job, no rest, no call outs, just a lot of pain!
While MOST men sit in an office, because they would rather sit on their ass all day, instead of earning a living
with daily manual labor, the way the man was supposed to live, instead they go to the gym one hour a day
working one body part a week. All the time struggling to get out of a chair from heavy leg day telling everyone
how hard leg day was.
Try doing manual labor and not being able to move, walk right or bend over because of soreness five days
a week for 30 fucking years!
Do you know how to tell a man who lacks durability? He tells you!
He lets you know of every injury he gets, and they talk non stop of recovery time, they brag about the
injury like they were in some life or death battle.
I occasionally get sore, but not where it effects my job, and my quality of life, I realized a high level of
physical fitness can be maintained with short bursts of exercise like early man lived, and constant
daily activity.
Not all men are going to earn a living doing manual labor, but men can find ways to boost their real
life functional strength with a little more than a weighted back pack, a hill or some steps, maybe a
rock or a mid weight set of dumbbells to carry.
Isometrics are also something that can be done all day, through out the day, working the muscles
daily on a constant basis, will build muscle toughness and hardness.
Toughness in mind and body are important, but it can be achieved without crippling yourself
for a few days, so you spend the next two days in “Recovery” what do you really gain?
Some soreness is good, being unable to walk is stupidity!
Johnny Grube
This here is worth more than gold! Even fights for example and I’m talking street fights do not last long at all. No need to be training so long and no need to be squatting hundreds of pounds. All it does is cause wear & tear on the body and doesn’t even increase performance. Being sore all the time is a performance hindrance.
Great Article!
I was one of those idiots who had sore legs for days after a leg workout.
I got bigger legs and got stronger at squatting and leg pressing but for what purpose?
Having to go up and down stairs all day at work carrying equipment when my legs were as sore as hell was no fun at all!
Foolishly I did this for years!
Andrew
so basically what pavel tsatsouline was and is still saying all these years. Lift moderatley heavy, often and never to failure!
Not training to failure equals training to quit whenever times are tough. Tsatsouline’s training philosophy doesn’t apply well to real life, everyday we should push our body to the limit no matter how tough it is so our bodies can bounce back stronger than before.