No Pain, No Gain?

Anyone who ever took a gym class in high school has probably heard the phrase "no pain, no gain." I'm not a fan of that phrase for a couple of reasons.  Mainly because it causes some people to push through the wrong types of pain.

When working out, there are a number of different types of "pain" you may experience during your program.  Some are good and others can be very dangerous.  For example, when strength training, if your muscles are burning and hurting, that's probably a good thing.  That means you're adequately taxing your muscles in order to build more strength or endurance, and you should push through that "pain".  Joint pain, on the other hand, is nothing something to take lightly.  Often, this results from poor form when performing an exercise, so check with a qualified fitness professional to have them evaluate your form to make sure you're doing it right.  Or, if you're working out at home, have a friend or partner compare what you're doing to what the instructors on your DVD are doing to make sure they look the same.  Either way, you do not want to push through joint pain.  If you do, you run the risk of further injuring the joint which could end up in an injury so severe it requires surgery (and no one wants that!).

A couple days ago I noticed that my right knee felt a little funny.  It doesn't hurt, but it doesn't feel quite "right" either.  The last thing I want as I start a fitness journey is to find myself sidelined with an injury. So, what am I doing?  A couple of different things actually.  During my strength training, I make sure I'm paying close attention to my form, especially during squats.  And during TurboFire, I took out a few of the high-impact options (so less jumping overall) to put less stress on my knee.  If the weird feelings continues, I'm planning to look into a joint support supplement, and if that doesn't work, of if the weird feeling start to turn into a feeling of pain, I'll make an appointment with my doctor.  However,  I also know that losing weight is one of the best things I can do for all my joints.  It's not good for them to have to carry around 70+ pounds of extra weight.  So that means I need to continue to stay focused on eating clean and working out safely.

So, moral of today's post?  If you're not experience joint pain, push yourself to workout hard during your workouts.  Push past your comfort zone and lift a little heavier, work a little harder during your intervals, while always maintaining good form.  However, if your joints hurt, check your form, reduce the amount of jumping, and see your doctor if things really hurt or don't improve.

And as always, stay healthy!