I mean surely all those hard sets and reps to failure might improve our pain tolerance
Recently just had a minor cut since a long time, and when I put topical antiseptic on the wound, I didn’t feel much pain at all. I remember when I was teenager I used to get hurt a lot and these topical antiseptic ointments hurt like hell
In specific areas like hands (especially if you don’t wear gloves) I would say it can desensitize you to some extent to pain, yes.
I don’t think it does for me. I think it actually makes me more of a pussy. I used to never complain about my shoulders, elbows, wrists, knees, and hips. After just one short year of lifting I complain about all of these.
It does. The anesthesiologist I used to lift with knew the exact mechanisms of downregulation of nociception and all of that, but I just settled for “Yep. Sure does.”.
Pain as it relates to exercise is a pretty neat and interesting subject.
As a personal experience though I think it helps a lot of people understand the transient nature of pain/discomfort, which goes a long way in separating injury from suffering.
Very interesting. I always thought that high pain tolerance is one of the traits of elite bodybuilders to be able to push beyond failures and sometimes go an extra mile whether it’d be weight or volume. John Meadows said it in one of the videos. I also noticed after I did bodybuilding that syringes, cuts, etc didnt hurt me at all. It feels lighter than all the pain through failures and all those hard sets accumulated on my body
There’s a bit of give and take. My pain tolerance or threshold for even knowing something isn’t quite right is pretty high. I’ve torn a bunch of muscles and done a good bit of lasting damage to myself because by the time I realize something is wrong or I should quit its usually too late.
I think that what benefits athletes is separating pain from suffering. They can push hard enough to benefit from the effort, but keep themselves safe by knowing when to say when- while knowing that it is worth it thereby reducing or eliminating suffering.
To my mind, there’s a big difference between pain and discomfort. If I do a hard set of breathing squats, it will be extremely uncomfortable but not painful. Maybe I’m just a massive vagina and don’t push myself hard enough, but to me there’s a very clear distinction between discomfort and pain.
I think you’re just underestimating how big a pussy a teenage boy can be.
Getting comfortable being uncomfortable is one of the reasons I lift. Stepping out under 290# for the first time at 178 for a squat, well, that sucks. Dropping into the hole with no idea if you can get out of it sucks. Being gassed after a ten rep deadlift sucks.
After those things, that you chose to do, at whatever level, the little shit doesn’t really matter.
I dislocated my shoulder skiing one time. My brother was with me, an ER doc. He had our friend sit on my chest while he relocated it on the slope. I asked if it was going to hurt, dumbest question ever.
We called him doctor warmth, because he was honest AF.
ME: Is it going to hurt?
HIM: Yeah, it’s going to hurt like shit.
Pop, back in.
I wasn’t going down in a gurney, so I skied down to the closest lift, took it up, then skied down to the lodge.
He was blown away. I can only say that lifting prepared me to be in pain, and I really don’t push myself that hard, so yeah. Lifting helps with pain tolerance.
If you want to know what pain is do the Wrist Curl machine with the lowest weight till failure.After about 15-20 reps it starts burning 30 reps is some of the worst pain I’ve ever felt in my life,40 reps is burning sensation in whole body. Once you let’s go of the machine and blood rushes back into the forearm it’s hard not to scream and cringe. Idk maybe that’s only me.
That’s a thing? Damn, I’ve been hiding in my garage gym for so long I’ve lost touch with the outside world.
After you have done that, take a hammer and bash your thumb with it as hard as you can and tell me how bad that wrist curl felt lol
I would separate pain and discomfort. Sure, you will feel bad and your muscles will feel “burn”. But that is not pain. Break your toe or wrist and you’ll feel pain.
Lifting weights can build character, but I also find it funny that people sometimes seem to think that moving weights against gravity is the hardest thing you can do and almost makes you a modern day gladiator.
Do you not “go to war with the weights”? I saw an advert on Facebook a while back that suggested lifting weights was “building your legacy”, I almost laughed out loud.
Hahah!
Now that’s some funny shit! Yeah makes for good marketing for young guys and beginners.
Are you suggesting I’m not a young guy?
Relatively speaking. Lol but I do find the type of motivational phrases amusing anymore as I get more gray hairs.
I think overall I’ve become a mentally tougher, more disciplined person through weight training, and with that I’ve learned to deal with pain better, but I don’t necessarily think I feel it less. Particularly in the way you’re talking about.
Like, a cut still feels like a cut. stomach pain still feels like stomach pain. Those things suck as much as they ever have. But weight lifting-specific things do tend to improve. The pain and/or discomfort of a barbell on my back has changed immensely since I started lifting. But, I don’t know if the reason for that is bigger traps, or a mental acclimation to the bar on my back. Probably a bit of both.
I’ve smashed my big toe-tip bone with a 45lbs plate to powder and can tell you that it is less pain than the wrist curls seem, maybe cause of shock or something. I was laughing with friends after it fell down and only realized something was wrong when I heard sloshing around in my shoe and when blood started pouring out the sides.