No Pain, No Gain = No Brain
When I started to run, 4 years ago, I started knowing that it will hurt. I was weighing 20 kilos more, I was depressed and I just knew that everything that I want to obtain will be very, very difficult. I just knew it.
Fast forward 4 years, until today: at this very moment of my life, I covered probably more than 6.000 kilometers by running. I finished a few marathons and a few ultramarathons ranging from 60km to 220km. I also participated in 24 hours and 48 hours running events. All without any major injuries.
And you know what? After all these years, after all this training, after all these milestones, I know something else: it doesn't need to hurt.
Let me explain.
Social Programming and Innate Stupidity
First of all, I want to clarify the term "stupidity". It doesn't have any negative connotation and it doesn't imply any qualitative difference form a human being to another. It's more like naivety, or confusion or the penchant to believe everything we're told. From this perspective, we're all innately stupid.
When we're kids, we believe everything our parents or caretakers are telling us. We just do. We make some connexions between the fact that they're taking care of us and their ability to understand the world. We equal safety with knowledge.
This bias is much more profound than we want to admit. We carry this thing with us way into our adult age. If somebody proves to us that he knows what he's doing once, twice or maybe three times, then we're giving him credit automatically.
We're also giving credit to certain systems, like the social system we happen to live in. Just because the system is keeping us safe, we tend to believe that the system is also right.
It's not.
One of the most obvious parts in which the system fails to deliver is the very title of this article: no pain, no gain. When did pain got equal value with gain? How the hell do we got to believe this? Because if this is true, believe me, after all my toothaches I should have been as rich as Elon Musk.
I'm not.
This "no pain, no gain" paradigm is just a part from what I call social engineering. I don't know your definition of that, but for me, social engineering comprise the totality of approaches a social system uses in order to lower its own entropy. It's a very complex topic, hence I'm not gonna talk about it today, only about this tiny little part.
Aerobic versus Anaerobic
In order to explain why "no pain, no gain" is inaccurate at its best, and dangerous at its worst, let me make a little detour through the world of running.
We, humans, have two motion systems: one is aerobic, in which we are burning predominantly fat, and the other one is anaerobic, in which we are burning predominantly glycogen (sugar). The aerobic system can generate moderate speed for very long distances, while the anaerobic system can generate very high speed, but for very little amount of time. We carry far less sugar in our bodies than fat.
The aerobic system is what made us successful at persistence hunting (running after a deer for days, until the deer overheated and just feel down) while the anaerobic system was very good in survival situations (when a bear attacks, you need to run fast, but not for long).
In 95% of the training systems today, the strain is made on the aerobic system. There is a lot of speed training and that training is prolonged more than it should be. Hence, the abundance of the running related snacks, or gels, which are just extra stores of sugar. The mainstream method of training today is about prolonging the anaerobic system for as long as it takes.
Even when it hurts. And it doesn't hurt only while running. It hurts after the running as well, because maintaining the body in that state has long term implication over the body acidity, level of cortisol and free radicals. All this is bad stuff.
Another approach to the speedwork, a method which is far less popular these days, because it doesn't root in the "no pain, no gain" mantra, is to become faster by running slower. In other words, it starts by running in the aerobic interval and just increases the distances. Surprisingly enough, after a few months of training, the aerobic system improves. And you start to experience an increase in speed as well. And all that without pain, without extra stores of sugar and without injuries.
I speak from experience. This is how it works.
Now, back to our article.
There Is Always A Better Way
In any life situation there is a way. There is always a way that will give you the desired results and nobody has set in stone that "no pain, no gain". Nobody. This is just social engineering and you don't have to fall for this.
You don't have to go through hell in order to rejoice paradise. Of course, given our uncontrollable shitty life we're forced sometimes to go through hell. But that doesn't necessarily mean there will be some inherent gain from it. It's just hell, folks.
It took me a few years to wrap my head around this and running helped me a lot. When I saw that I get far better results when I'm training slower, my doubts were shaken. In a few months, I was a believer.
And now I really think there is no direct causality between pain and gain. You can gain a lot in this life without feeling pain.
Once you'll look at the "no pain, no gain" mantra from this perspective, it will all come to the light.
I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.
https://steemit.com/~witnesses
Oh, but there is pain Dragos! my quads are screaming today hehehehe.
And I did gain. I gained the knowledge that I can run 10kms without having a a heart attack.
And I did that marvelous feat by reading your book - Running for my life, and running aerobically i.e. slowly.
But what you are saying here is absolutely correct, one does not bring the other. And seeking out a painful path thinking you will get the best gains is just wrong.
Keep on giving us this good advice Dragos. I'm going to hobble off now and do some stretching..... and that's going to hurt! hehehe
HAHA , very cynical :D , jokes aside I have to second some points!
Great write , there a lot of points not even related to training that you have touched upon. I didn't know you had written a book , much less that you are a ultramarathoner , the image i had of myself running just got passed by miles.
It's been the same in my experience , I've always felt like running slowly and in pace makes the most sense.
Slowly shouldn't be missunderstood since as it is stated the pace increases quickly ad before you know it you are running for miles without feeling much of a stress past the first 10-20 minutes , there is the question of the joints and blisters , but i will have to look at the book , maybe there is something there :)
I can recommend @dragosroua's book if you are into running. It's a good read and there are lots of little tidbits that can help you in your running.
It has even inspired me to start running again. 10kms so far. Tomorrow.... who knows :-)
Thank you , maybe one day , right now I can't afford books , the informative snippets are all to go by. I'm going to read it if i get this month on track (:D ) and start with the challenge , that seems like a good incentive to go to bed at 5 oclock. :D
Joints are not a problem if you eat properly (and supplement with a bit of magnesium and glucosamine). Blisters can be a problem and I had a lot of trouble with them. It's all about the right combination of socks and shoes. For me, wool socks made the difference. So it can be solved but it's a rather slow and painful process until you figure out what works for your combination of skin, sweat and movement.
Makes perfect sense , I'm having some joint issues , more like traumas , In my mind we arent treating our bodies very nicely, one thing i'm missing is active recovering , like massages and basically supplements.
Wool socks i presume are working because they are made from a natural substance , so you should be getting less irritation on the skin , although the sweating is another question.
One more question , how important is stretching , as much as running , or not so much , also do you stretch a lot (before and after) ?
Finally , I've got a look of your bookcover , I think it perfectly illustrates what running is supposed to be , a joy.
Thanks for the nice words about the book, hope you'll read it one day :)
As for stretching, I do it regularly, but not necessarily before and after running. I practice yoga consistently, every morning, at least 5 minutes, sometimes even 20 minutes. Nothing fancy or complicated, just sun salutations, trees and warriors, most of the time.
For me, the most effective strategy in avoiding injuries was the warm up. At least 10 minutes of walking before a long run, and a proper cool down after, probably 1 km walking. It's better than stretching.
As i thought , once again makes perfect sense. Yeah so i'm not missing much. I've been doing morning routines too , not yoga , something along the lines of qigong and when i was consistent it was really paying off , I could basically train 3 times a day , run from place to place(halfway) , I had more time because I was getting up earlier and enjoyed the days more , although I gave up most of my work related headaches and ditched the computer. It's worth it for a time , you get to really meet people and spend time in the park , read write , possibilities are endless.
Of course there is pain, but there is no direct link between the amount of pain and the odds of succeeding, that's what I'm talking about.
"Pain is unavoidable, suffering is optional". Although this is as popular as the "no pain, no gain" mantra, I tend to embrace it more.
Keep it up, I'm watching you :)
I'm in the same situation. I gained in a few months 10 kg, so now I have to get rid of them. Running is also my solution, but because outside is really cold, I started running on stairs instead. On the internet people are saying that this is even more productive, but it is a lot harder.
I enjoyed your article and I believe that it encourages a lot of people to start doing some exercising.
Running on stairs is definitely much harder. It's a good training if you plan to do some mountain marathons this summer.
The very sad thing for all the couch potatoes, is that the amount of excercize to remain decently fit is 30 minutes of walking.
Becoming tone is just using all of your muscles, so that they are used to responding. Muscle atrophy from inuse is where the real pain is.
Rightly so.
30 minutes of walking are for old people btw , if you would like to avoid problems , you need a bit of focus , some discipline to keep you in shape , the main points are move it helps you , just the increase in "flow" ad decrease of entropy is enough. Have some movement culture be it martial arts or dancing , or just freerun.
Keep your back straight ! :) all impossible on a couch
I couldn't agree more.
I want to swim this year so this encouraged me, thanks
Go for it! :)
Very well written and super informative, thanks @dragosroua!!!
Thank you!