Year of Push 3.3 Pain for Progress

by | May 17, 2017 | Blog

What a beautiful day! After weeks & weeks of rain, it’s a warm, sunny week in the Boston area!

After my workout today, I went for a massage. While many see massages as pampering, mine are not. My massage therapist is doing body work – she’s finding problems & helping me fix them.

Fixing problems isn’t comfortable. It doesn’t feel good. But the pain (discomfort) is the pathway to progress.

The massage isn’t comfortable. Often, she has to remind me to breathe because I’m wincing and holding my breath through the discomfort.

She’ll often ask, “Are you okay?” and I always respond, “Do what needs to be done. It’s worth the pain to make the progress.

It’s worth the pain to make the progress.

Here’s the alternative: tell her to stop when it gets uncomfortable and miss the benefit while allowing the problem to compound. No. Absolutely not.

Unfortunately, that’s the chosen approach of many: quit or dial back when it gets uncomfortable.

Most people aren’t willing to endure the pain to make the progress.

They aren’t willing to endure the pain of temptation, the pain of discipline, the pain of “missing out” or the pain of a tough workout even though progress is right on the other side.

(For those of you who are about to get all crazy about the word “pain”, call it discomfort and find the point in what I’m saying.)

Change isn’t comfortable.

If you’re quitting at the edge of your comfort zone, don’t expect the joy, relief and pride of accomplishment.

Don’t talk about how badly you want the results if you won’t push past the pain so you can get to the progress.

I got a chance to practice that discomfort zone in today’s workout. I PR’d my overhead squat and hit 3 sets of 3 reps at the PR! (PR stands for personal record.)

It was so worth stepping outside my comfort zone!

“Weightlifting Wednesday”
Overhead Squat – Heavy Set of 3

Then,

EMOMx12, Alternating:
Min 1: 12 KB Front Rack Lunges (30’s)
Min 2: 12 Pushups
Min 3: 12 DB Box Step-ups (20’s)
Min 4: 40 second Plank Hold

It wasn’t an intense workout but it was great skill work and a welcome change from the recent cardio-intensive WODs.

On the food front:

I treated myself to two of the coffee drinks I shared yesterday – butter coffee from Picnik. I had one when I woke up around 5am and a second after my workout around 8:30am.

I had an early lunch around 10:45am – Paleo Power Meals cobb salad with added raw cabbage. This meal fills me up for hours!

At 3pm I had 3 grilled chicken strips with about 1 tbsp of honey mustard and dinner was around 6pm: spaghetti squash with meat sauce, also from Paleo Power Meals.

If you give Paleo Power Meals a try, be sure to use the coupon code ebprimal20 to save 20% on your first order!

PS: If you’re new to these posts, listen to this podcast episode to get the scoop on what changes I’m making in my life and you can start back at my first daily post here.

The Primal Potential Podcast

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