When Passion Turns To Pain
Many people exercise, but not everyone works hard enough. Some people chat or use their phones during workouts, which doesn’t help them get fit. Other people overtrain by copying elite athletes who exercise at the highest level, every day. This can be risky, as focusing on professional-level results can lead to injuries, as well as losing sight of the simple satisfaction of becoming stronger, healthier, and more resilient.
Training Properly
For most people, staying fit for life means taking a balanced approach to exercise. Unlike professional athletes, our goal isn't to win medals but to focus on staying active and healthy now and when we’re older, without risking our well-being.
That doesn’t mean there’s no effort involved. Good exercise results come from consistent intensity that gets you winded or tired—a natural consequence of exerting yourself, but doesn’t go overboard.
In striking contrast, the feeling of sickness—often accompanied by nausea, dizziness, or even an urge to vomit—can arise when exercise is taken beyond a reasonable threshold. This isn’t just an inconvenience; it signals that something is wrong.
Why Overtrain?
So why do some push themselves too hard? Too many have a concerning habit of trusting social media advice, not realizing it often depicts unrealistic body images or promotes unhealthy ways to get fit, like overtraining or using steroids. Others pursue personal milestones, like running multiple marathons or achieving an unrealistic strength goal, believing that discomfort equates to progress.
In general, it’s better to focus on building a strong, healthy body that lasts, through a moderate approach. Going to constant failure and burnout wears you out physically and mentally, and that’s not the outcome you're striving for.
The human body is a finely tuned machine that requires care and respect. You can push it quite a bit when you’re young, but you will probably also lay the foundation for both short-and long-term health problems.
Short-term issues: Muscle and tendon strains and tears, sleep disturbances, weakened immune system.
Long-term issues: Chronic fatigue, hormonal imbalances, mental health disorders, metabolic dysregulation, tendonitis, stress fractures, and bone wear and tear.
Exercise should be a part of your everyday life and for all of your life. It’s great to push yourself and get better, but if you’re only doing it to look good, you should rethink your goals. The real point of exercise is to keep your body healthy by understanding what it needs, not just pushing it to the limit. Some pain is inevitable, but meaningless pain is pointless.
Remember:
Good pain pushes you forward.
Bad pain weighs you down.
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