The only way I’ve ever seen appreciable results from training is doing so in a manner that makes me want to never set foot in the gym again. This goes hand in hand with the eating that I have to do to make noticeable gains. I don’t have a huge appetite, so the combo is really pretty crappy.
I think I could see general health results from training that doesn’t suck too much, but that’s not really the goal right now.
Very eloquently put @GorillaMon
From that I am understanding that it needs to suck for improvements and when it no longer sucks it is time to find the next sucky thing.
That seems to be where people fall in one camp
or another. Those who can like/love the suck and those who can’t but do it anyway.
Yeah, agreed. I legit love training, but not because I am having “fun” while under serious physical stress or pain. By definition, we aren’t really supposed to enjoy pain.
Yer but we love a good flex, oh and the yoga pants!
No kidding, I just loving wearing my pair.
But seriously, we could start an entire and likely inappropriate conversation on just this topic.
Go for it mate start up a thread about what you love about the gym.
No reason to mate. We just agreed it was yoga pants.
I knew before you posted you would be in my camp. I watch your videos and I feel you are enjoying the suffering. I touched on this subject when you posted the picture of you guys laying on the floor after a workout.
I’ll answer the titular question.
Does training have to suck in order for there to be results? Absolutely not. And I don’t think anyone can, in a general sense, answer otherwise.
Reason being: as we’ve seen, there are those for whom, no matter what you throw at them, training won’t suck. I myself am such a person. I thoroughly enjoy and thrive on physical exertion. When I push myself hard in training, to where others might think, “This sucks!” I instead find positivity in it. Therefore, it does not suck.
So from a broad perspective, no, training doesn’t have to suck — or maybe cannot suck because of their mindset — in order for it to be effective. More specifically though: for some, they will have to make training “suck” to get to that point if effectiveness.
Overall: yes and no.
I mean no disrespect as i do believe that we all just want to make a better versions of ourselves. But i see and read this kind of stuff on IG like “i am going to war” and other stuff about the gym.
I live in a 3rd world country, i am an ex-fighter and nowdays i am a military hand to hand combat instructor in a country that has 700 dollars average sallary per month and exact same prices for food that America has, only our McDonalds costs 3 times as much as yours(keep in mind having 700-800 dollars on hand per month is a good money).
I dont know guys, where in your gym is this dark place, no fun, or WAR. For us, gym is something nice you do for yourself…if you can afford… 80% of the people cant afford gym and food for sporting needs. It is a luxury which you earn by saving your money and you definetly love and enjoy it.
Training is the best part of my day and every day i say thanks to the universe that i am priviledged enough to be able to actually train and eat as much food as a family of 6 usually need.
Gym is not a war, its not hardcore and its not badass. If you have windows and/or air conditioning there, its a luxury place for people who have money and lots of free time.
Thats what i have to say about just going to the gym. But if we speak about the training itself, as it “hurts” someone or is hard… well, since i come from a fighting background i cant say its hard or not fun or hurts… I have trained with the best, and i have been beaten down by the best. At the ages of 25-30 i firstly did my combat training, was getting my ass kicked, and then i went to gym to “relax”. It is fucking sweet - you can just listen to music, lift weights, put in some work, feel the iron pushing back. No one is trying to choke you or kick you in the face, you dont have to dodge shit etc.
Gym is more of an intellectual thing for me - i have no problems breaking my back with weights i cant lift. The problem is to understand how to progress. Its in the mind. For the body there is nothing hard, at least for me, as i am used to training that ends with broken bones - gym is such a sweet, calm and relaxing place…
Honestly, if training is not fun for anyone - you have a friggin NICE life. How good of a life you have if training “hurts” and gym membership is not even “fun” for you.
This is somewhat of a cliche American problem, where people are so fat, it actually kills them while 1/3 of the world is starving to death and 1/3 of the world is just barelly getting by on food… There, in the land of free calories, also live people who go to WAR at the shiny, sunny, air conditioned centre of wellness… Makes me smile.
As far as the original question goes… i dont think it needs to suck. First thing, as i said, i think if it sucks, just do different sport. When you found the thing you like to do, no, you dont have to be miserable.
Im trying to do strenght training and i have found that i have best results if i never feel like i really went hard. Probably cuz of my background - i can really push myself to death if i want to, and i dont really care about pain. I could max deadlifts every day. The problem is - it doesnt work. For me, with my mentality, it is very hard to do SO little, and feel so fresh after something that is supposed to be training…but its what you need to do if you want to get stronger week by week. My results really improved when i really backed off my intensity.
I think its like tattoos(someone mentioned those). Some kids say they hurt because they have never felt pain and had problems. Anyone who has ever stepped on a rusty nail while working or had a broken nose will say that tattoos are a snooze…
It’s like messing with a loose tooth. It might be a bit much to talk about enjoying it, but pain isn’t a physical entity, it’s an emotion. For me it isn’t exactly fun, but it is addicting. And it just makes life better.
Ultimately, it depends on what results you want. I have been around gyms long enough to see guys who were in enviable shape yet didn’t seem to train that intensely.
I like to apply some Kantian philosophy on the subject. Which means, on the days you cannot face it, you resort to cold, dispassionate duty. Get in and get it done. Chances are you will snap out of it when you get into the groove.
Then it’s about finding the right training style. When you see progress in load, reps, etc, you start to believe in yourself and that helps you train harder. Training suck, for me, is some form of HIT failure training. I’ve been doing DC for a bit now and love it but I detest the stretching aspect. That’s a huge suck for me but I suspect it is a driving force in my gains, so I get the Kantian head on again when I’m looking for excuses to lessen the pain. Masochism? More like pragmatism.
Understand you feelings about these types of comments but pretty sure I didn’t refer to that in my OP.
I certainly made no reference to war and also did not mention fun. My reference to dark place was mostly poetic licence to paint a picture around training that is hard. It looks like from your experience you understand this very well.
It is interesting that you say it doesn’t need to suck.
When I read some of what you wrote about your training I would think that some of those sessions were extremely hard. Maybe the word suck was a poor choice and I should have said does it need to be hard. All that training you did that was tough surely made you improve ?
Sad though it may be, for a lot of people in a lot of countries going to the gym is the hardest thing they do. I can’t speak for America as I haven’t lived there but I have lived in the UK and Australia and for most people life is not hard. For most people who attend the gym this is the only physical activity they do.
The “best” results I have achieved came from finding a training style I loved. I wish I could still train the way I did when I was in my 30s. If I’d won the lottery and quit my job, I could have easily and enjoyably spent hours 4-5 days a week preparing for and then completing my training sessions.
I’m not sure whether I should admire or pity those of you who have to push through something that sucks for the results you want. A bit of both I suppose. I know if I felt my training sucked, I wouldn’t have done it.
what is really news for me, is that I thought everyone on this site loved to workout. Learning that people here dread working out is news to me.
One of the primary reasons I train first thing in the morning is so that it’s over and done with.
Your avatar tag says Riga, Latvia.
Is that 3rd world? I mean, just curious. I know that the ussr left a lot of devastation in its wake.
I like that it-
-gives consistency to my day
-gives me a valid reason to not work when I have a busy project that I would normally be spending my time on, therefore giving me a break.
-Supposedly has health benefits and strength increases when you do hard training.
But if I could get the same supposed health benefits and strength results from walking on a treadmill for 10 minutes then that’s all I’d do. There are many, many other things that I can do to achieve the first two points on the list above.
And, to be really honest, for the longest time one of the benefits was that I didn’t have to spend water at home. My water bill was really really low as a result.
this goes to @throwawayfitness thread asking if we would rather workout and recover completely the next or get 1.5x the strength gain but take 2x as long to recover.
I feel that thread went to this topic. I chose to recover each day because I would love to hurt myself each day and be able to hurt the next day and each day after. If I could squat heavy, bench, deadlift, and overhead press each day, I would gladly do it.
