PAIN is a very familiar and profound aspect of our lives - It comes in many forms, shapes, sizes, and levels of intensity - there’s emotional pain, physical pain, mental pain, unavoidable pain, and self-inflicted pain. The type of pain that I want to address today is self-inflicted pain. I’m not talking about self-mutilation or self-abuse, I’m talking about the pain we experience when we exercise. Let me get even more specific - I’m not talking about pain from an injury or something like an aching back - I’m referring to ‘the burn’, the pain we feel when we push ourselves during physical activity - working our bodies until fatigue starts to creep in - when one more push up - a hundred more yards - or five more squats feels like an impossible feat - when the lungs are on fire and the heart feels like it might explode.

One of our motto’s here at The Power Center is ‘Pain is your Friend’ - Now before you draw any conclusions that I’m some kind of glutton for punishment let me explain exactly how pain can be your ally instead of an adversary. Growing up as an athlete I was always taught to push myself to 100% and beyond - the only problem was I didn’t learn how to do that until my athletic career was over. The old saying, ‘if I only knew then what I know now’ couldn’t be any more fitting - the good news is that it doesn’t only have to apply to athletics.

When we place our focus on the mind as opposed to the body (which is something I had always done in the past) pain plays a vital roll that can help elevate our minds to new heights.  Here’s how it works: when we choose to do exercises that can be done for large number of repetitions you will eventually arrive at a point of fatigue when the muscles start to run out of energy or the lungs feel like they might collapse- that’s when the body starts to send messages to the brain saying that it’s experiencing an uncomfortable feeling and “I would like it if we could stop doing this” - Once this internal dialogue begins that is our opportunity to work the mind - you see the body is capable of doing much more than the it’s willing to admit and so when we reach this point of exercise we have the choice to stop or continue - the further we push ourselves beyond the point when the body wants to quit the stronger we become, mentally. I would imagine that there isn’t a person out there that wouldn’t benefit from being mentally tougher.

This type of training requires an understanding of the theory, an awareness of how the body’s energy system works, and how the breath plays an important role in achieving optimal results. You can learn all of these principals with any of the “Prevention Specialists” (Trainers) at The Power Center. So feel free to call us and set up an appointment taking your first step towards creating a healthier you. You deserve it!