Growing Pains

The gym is a great place for revelations. So many of the things we learn in the gym about training our physical bodes can be applied to our lives and training of our minds.

Today was another one of those “revelation” days. I’ve had this particular one before, but today it served as a necessary reminder at the perfect time so I thought I would share it with you all in case any of you may be in a similar place and need the reminder.

It was leg day…a leg day I was not really excited about. From the very first set (the warm up set with almost no weight), it felt hard and I felt completely unmotivated for the workout ahead. But as sets went by, my mojo caught up with me. But still, my body felt tired today. When I got towards the end of my workout and I was finishing off with some leg extensions, I got to 10 reps on my first set and was ready to “rack it” (except it’s not a rack, it’s a stack…you get it) and my “trainer mind” kicked in…”Keep going, the pain is where the growth is.” (I’m talking about the good pain where you know you’ve pushed your muscles to the max. Not, the kind of pain where you’re going to blow out your knee) 10 reps was comfortable, it didn’t hurt. I knew I had more in me.

The pain is where the growth is. It’s so easy for us to live in our comfort zone but we don’t grow there. If we want to grow we have to push past that comfortable place to the place where it hurts and we want to scream in pain and we want to quit. That’s the place we grow from who we are to who we are meant to be.

The thing is: you can have a trainer standing over you, pushing you past the comfort zone and into those last few reps that make you want to scream, that’s not a bad thing. But even better is when you can push yourself to the place where it’s uncomfortable, sometimes even downright painful.

From the most challenging, painful experiences in my life have come the most personal growth. While I would not wish to repeat any of those situations, I appreciate them for who they helped me become and when another challenging situation arises, it’s easier to have the perspective that pushing through the pain and discomfort brings growth. You know it doesn’t feel good now, but you know the payoff is worth it.

Embrace the pain and discomfort…that is where the growth is.