@dagill2 That was an amazing read. Thanks for posting it. That echoes most of what I’ve ever thought on the subject of training. It’s frustrating too, because people will ask for advice on a million different variables, and then you find out that they’re simply not pushing themselves in the gym. Even worse, they THINK they are, because they have no frame of reference regarding pain such that, as soon as they experience the mildest form of discomfort, they assume they have reached some sort of unpassable threshold.
It’s why I keep saying “If you enjoy training, you’re probably not training hard enough”. I lose a lot of friends whenever I bring it up, but I firmly believe it.
@Benanything Honestly, like anything else, you gotta build up a tolerance through constant gradual exposure. It’s about shifting your perspective and warping your sense of normalcy. You do have to fight the self preservation instincts a touch in order to GET to that point in the first place, but after you spend enough time in pain, it gets easier.
If I were to make it numeric, think of it like this. Say you have a pain scale from 0-10. Everyday, with no pain, you exist at 0. If you constantly subject yourself to level 2 pain, eventually, level 2 BECOMES your 0, and now your pain scale has shifted. You honestly forget what it’s like to be pain free, and instead learn how to live with pain as though you are pain free. And now, with this new modified scale (where 2 is your 0), you then move on to live with level 2 pain again, and make THAT your zero, and you repeat over and over again.
A few funny experiences regarding that; when I was getting ready for my surgery, they were asking me about pain management, and they wanted to know what pain level I was comfortable with being at while recovering at home. They asked me on a scale of 0-10, and I told them 6. They looked at me like I was crazy, and said they were more wanting to keep me at a 1 or 2, but I was so used to just experiencing pain that I couldn’t fathom being that low.
At the same time, I only took my pain meds for the first 3-4 days, and even then I was taking half a dose at the most. After 3-4 days, I quit taking them because I was pain free…except 2 weeks later I discovered it was THEN that I was painfree. Once again, I was so used to living with pain that I had literally forgotten what it was like to be painfree, such that, when I was dealing with some residual post surgical pain, my mind interpreted that as “normal”.
I guess another part of it too is that you aren’t really “ignoring” the pain, you’re just ignoring the panic associated with it. You understand that you are feeling pain, and then you move on.
Got back from a 6.5 month post op follow up with my surgeon.
I am healed. There will be no more follow-ups, no more appointments, no more PT. I have been told to of course take things slowly and that it will be another 5 months before I am fully recovered, but otherwise there is nothing more than can do for me.
Allow me to reiterate.
I am the Juggernaut.
You can’t kill me.
You can’t stop me.
