Pain... it's all in your head

You are breathing so hard your lungs are on fire.  Your legs feel like cement blocks each time you try to run one more step or do one more squat jump.  Your arms and shoulders are burning and shaking so badly you are sure you are going to do a face plant if you attempt one more push up.  And it's all in your head?  Okay, your body really is "hurting", but how you deal with the pain is all in your head.

People will sometimes refer to their pain threshold, saying they have either a high or low pain threshold.  Research has actually shown that most everyone has the same pain threshold, or the point at which they begin to experience something as painful.  What can differ greatly, though, is individual pain tolerance.

A recent study from the School of Medical Sciences in Australia shows that athletes can tolerate the sensation of pain longer than non-athletes.  So this raises the classic chicken-or-egg question.  Do some people become Metabolic Warriors because they naturally tolerate pain better, or does becoming a Metabolic Warrior result in developing a greater pain tolerance?

The Australian study showed that after just six weeks of moderate intensity training, people toughened up.  In fact, the study participants increased their pain tolerance by 20% while their pain threshold remained the same.  That is, they still perceived a given sensation to be just as painful as before, but they could tolerate that level of discomfort for a much longer period of time.

There were two very interesting findings with the study.  First, was how rapidly the participants improved their pain thresholds.  During the 6 week study participants were required to ride a stationary cycle 3 times a week, for 30 minutes at moderate intensity.  The second interesting discovery is that some of the pain tolerance tests were done on the participant's arms.  And since cycling doesn't specifically target the arms, the increase in pain tolerance cannot be attributed to the individuals becoming accustomed to the discomfort there.

The researchers concluded that the increase in pain tolerance was due to a psychological adaption to the training. This conclusion would be supported by a report in the journal Pain that looked at 15 studies that examined pain threshold and tolerance in athletes and non-athletes.  The researches concluded that athletes tend to instinctively rely on brain over body tricks to power through pain, and that athletes in the study were able to consistently tolerate more pain than non-athletes.

So perhaps some of our Metabolic Warriors are drawn to the training because they already have a higher pain tolerance than the average individual, but this research shows that getting fit can make you tougher, and the toughness you gain can help you to achieve even more physically.  So instead of a vicious cycle, you have a virtuous circle.  A what?!  (I had to look up the opposite of vicious cycle and don't necessarily like the term virtuous circle.)  So we would rather conclude that becoming a Metabolic Warrior makes you Warrior Strong.  Strong in Mind AND Body!