No pain, no gain!
Half empty, or Half full. Matt tackles pain with brain.
Here’s another bit of Sports Psychology for you and one that I find intriguing, because I truly believe that it’s the way in which a person deals with the pain of intense exercise that separates the fast from the not so fast. You may just want to ride singletrack and have no intension of putting yourself through any form of discomfort whatsoever. In which case, this advice is not for you, but if you race, or just want to get quicker for personal reasons, you may find it useful to read on…
A review in The Times back in June 2000 unearthed an interesting theory about why we feel pain and what we can do to control our perception of it. Professor Karen Berkley, from Florida State University said that the nervous system can regulate the amount of pain experienced, according to how much the brain assesses the pain signals to be. She goes on to say that the brain interprets the pain input it receives and tries to work out weather it should get away from what is causing it. If past experience tells the brain that the pain is likely to be important, it will keep the input of pain signals high.
Reading between the lines, this would suggest that the more regularly you expose your body to physical discomfort and pain during training, the less important the pain is considered to be by your brain, and the pain signals are attenuated. In other words, you’ll develop a greater tolerance to a specific pain stimulus over time as long as you keep experiencing it.
There’s also the question of ‘association’. Do you associate the pain as being negative, distressing and painful, or do you see it as being necessary and developmental. If you view your pain as being useful and a means of becoming a better athlete you’ll start to smile when your legs begin to burn, you’ll lap it up and savour every second of it. I believe that successful athletes associate pain perversely with pleasure, because they know its part of their overall strategy and game plan.
Wallowing in self-pity, focussing and worrying about the scratch on my knee is something that grandma used to clip me around the ear for… Suddenly my ear really hurt and my attention was diverted from the pain in my knee. Problem solved! I think there’s a lesson to be learnt here too. The more you focus on where the pain’s coming from, the more you dwell on it and the more intense it feels. This is the basis of my big argument against indoor training on a turbo or exercise bike, because whilst you can stabilise your training environment and record accurate data, there’s no visual stimulation. You have a clock and power/speed reading, but apart from that, all you can think about is how much your legs are flippin hurting. A similar intensity in a race situation, or hacking about with your pals won’t seem anything like as extreme, because your attention is diverted elsewhere. Try focussing on a tree or similar landmark at the top of the hill your climbing and go for it – and don’t stop until you get there.
So there’s a little bit on pain for you George. Get outside, ride your bike and start believing that if you put yourself through the mill you’re going to get something out of it. Embrace the pain, savour and respect it. Pain is your friend. And if my little words of wisdom don’t work, I could always send my granny over to clip you round the ear!
Matt Hart runs TORQ Fitness Training and Consultancy who have developed their range of performance nutrition products through a need to offer the highest standard of support to the athletes they work with. Matt’s philosophy is clear. His mission is for TORQ to produce the most highly effective performance nutrition on the market using natural and organic ingredients of a premium quality. He also believes that as TORQ has its roots firmly entrenched in Fitness Consultancy and cycling, this provides the company with its unique edge and integrity. For further information, visit