How do you feel about pain?

[Gladiola]

I understand that sometimes pain can bring on an effect that is desireable. In this case, it's not pain you like, it's endorphins.

Not just endorphins, but the emotional release. I've heard plenty of BDSM-ers say it's "cathartic". It is cleansing, a release.

It IS definitely pain though.... I've seen enough wincing, crying, screaming, pleading, and INFLICTED enough myself at Dungeon parties to know that it is true pain.

And it is consensual, it is sometimes dreaded, but enjoyed, but it is still pain.

 

[Japanese machine]

I love soreness. Pain is sucky!

 

[VeggieLifterChick]

"We often talk/hear about pushing through the pain, whether it be psychological (diet-induced), or physical (induced by training).

I have some questions about this. Are the people who are able to endure pain for longer likely to be the better athletes?"

If you are talking about psychological pain, then yes I do think those who are disciplined enough to stand the deprivation/anguish that comes with dieting are going to end up more successful in bodybuilding than those who aren't. In that sense they are likely to be the better athletes.

But I can't relate to this idea of physical pain in relation to weight lifting - the burn of muscle failure isn't what I'd call pain. Nor is soreness, even intense soreness, pain. It could be called discomfort, but even then sometimes it feels kind of good. Especially when you stretch...ahhh.....

 

[Hannibal]

Not just endorphins, but the emotional release. I've heard plenty of BDSM-ers say it's "cathartic". It is cleansing, a release.

A theory in need of more testing....

 

[Puddles]

Not all pain is equal...

A headache is never an enjoyable pain.

Pain while lifting and that initial pain during anal sex are enjoyable. You know it will end and the results are worth every bit of it. I look forward to those painful times!

I love to watch my husband's face when he's lifting and pushing through the pain. It just pleases me.

Childbirth pain...I had the joy of 18 hrs. of induced labor with no meds until the last 15 minutes when I opted for an eppidural which made me dialate from 2 cm to finish in minutes. I didn't make a sound during the whole thing (except for when they brought my husband his breakfast and it was lookin good but the wouldn't let me eat)...I kept focussed on each contraction and looked forward to bringing my daughter into the world.

 

[SteelWeaver]

Thanks for the replies.

"Not all pain is equal ..." Yeah, I guess there are different kinds of pain, and different levels, and different endurance abilities for different types of pain. What would we call, for example, intense lactic acid burn, like what you get when you, say, go to failure at about 12 reps on hack squats, pausing for a full 3 seconds and contracting the quads hard at the top and bottom, then squeezing out 6 or so forced reps of the same sort after that? I did that last week, and by the end of the set I was close to tears, but 30 seconds later I felt like a million bucks. (OK, maybe a few minutes later, lol) That was the most intense set I've ever done in my life - except maybe for a set of squats I did one time that actually DID make me cry. But that was pre-contest, so it's different. Why would that not necessarily count as pain?

It's a different type of pain from the type that slams you flat on your back and you can't move or breathe for days, or the type where you, say, have a nasty blister that the band-aid has melted into and you have to carry on hiking on it for hours and hours, gritting your teeth hard at every step.

But it still hurts.

For me, it doesn't come anywhere near the discomfort of dieting, though. But that's not really "pain", unless you're severely restricting calories.

Is pain just all in the mind? Do some people have a natural propensity to be able to separate and isolate pain from themselves? Or is it just something that comes with practice?

 

[MS]

Pain is all of the above. It is what's socially acceptable (don't cry, don't scream, don't be a baby), it's a short term sacrifice for long term benefit (why else would ANYONE get up and go to work day after day, or make themselves sore routinely, or stick to a contest diet???). It's neurochemical (women feel a lot more pain premenstrually and release fewer endorphins at this time, they feel less pain and produce more endorphins during childbirth). It is age and experience related, and genetics also plays a large part of how you respond to different sorts of pain. The part of the brain devoted to pain perception is apparently identical to pleasure perception ("there's a fine line between pleasure and pain") and the main difference seems to be "context". So if you concentrate REALLY hard, you can theoretically turn any kind of pain into pleasure......even deep bone pain associated with traumatic fractures! This is not necessarily a good thing for hopefully obvious reasons.

 

[Puddles]

Sometimes your mind can overcome pain. I don't understand it, but I have experienced it...

Yesterday I was on my 10th rep and hurting bad, my face contorted in agony, but I wanted to get to 12. I paused for maybe 3 or 4 seconds, breathed, went into my head and concentrated on NOTHING but my breathing and body movements, the pain was gone and I pushed out 4 more...I just continued until my muscles simply couldn't do it again but I wasn't in pain. As I put the weights down, the pain began to hit me but of course it only lasted a few seconds.

Another time my daughter and I were at the beach. She was maybe 4 y.o. and I was laying down in the sun watching her at the water's edge. She fell into the water and I freaked, I jumped up and ran towards her, not looking where I was going, stumbled in a hole in the sand, twisted my ankle and went down. I got right back up and kept running to my daughter because I thought she was in need of help. She was fine but a few seconds after I reached her, my ankle was killing me. I had sprained it but didn't know it or FEEL it until after I knew that she was safe. Afterwards, it amazed me that I had been able to keep running after the fall because my ankle looked like a small grapefruit but I didn't feel the pain until I knew she was ok. Why didn't I FEEL the pain then?

 

[FitFossil]

As long as it's not injury-type pain, I love it (muscle soreness, deep-tissue massage, giving my all on a heavy lift, etc.)

 

[Kali]

I love self induced pain. Pain that I am not meaning to inflict can be pretty bad. I just always go by the same quote though, that I got in bootcamp. "Pain is weakness leaving the body"