Debunking the No-Pain-No-Gain Myth: Smarter Training Strategies

Now I'm sharing what I know with you fitness , nutrition and all the deeper stuff to help you discover your strongest body . Hello , hello , welcome back to another episode of your Strongest Body . Thank you for being here . I'm Betsy and I am very happy to chat with you today . I have yet to create the title for this .

Sometimes I start with the title and sometimes I don't . I've yet to create the title , so as I talk about this , we'll decide what the title is , maybe together as this comes out .

Today , we're talking about the signs that we have come to establish as the signs of a good workout , right , the things that you may have associated in your mind with a good workout , and why those aren't really good indicators , and then how to assess quote unquote a good workout . So let's talk about that , and why do I think this is important .

I think that understanding that what we sort of usually attribute to a good workout is not always a great indicator , will help you have better workouts and will better help you understand what training is , because workouts are one-off experiences that do a few things in the moment they are acute .

Training is our bigger picture of what we are doing consistently , what we have sort of mapped out from a broader perspective , and it is all those workouts that are cumulative as part of our training that make the difference .

And if we are so attached to some kind of value to each individual workout , we start to lose sight of that bigger picture and we might be making missteps in the workout because we need that sort of instant gratification .

There is a lot about working out that we have societally know , societally attached to , like feeling accomplishment and feeling like you , you know really worked hard and all of that is great . But the individual workout has so much less meaning if it isn't part of the big picture . So I will sort of explain that as we go along .

Let's talk about what you normally think of as a good workout , or commonly think of as a good workout . Some of the things that I hear most often when people are describing their best workouts are that they sweat a lot . I was like dripping in sweat . First , everybody's body is different .

Everybody's body is different , so some people sweat a lot and some people do not . There are probably a lot of physiological reasons for this , a lot of genetic reasons for this , but people sweat differently so it doesn't really tell us much .

There are a lot of temperature reasons for these kinds of things , like depending on where you're working out , depending on the style of working out , and for sure there are kinds of workouts where , like , sweating a lot might directly correlate with the kind of work you're doing . I'm thinking about , like kind of an intense running workout or something .

But it also doesn't tell us a lot about the success of that workout , the amount of sweat . I just think that it often feels like a little bit of a badge of honor . And , if you like to sweat , there's an element to me where when I do my cardio , I sweat more than I do my lifts and I like the sensation of sweating stuff out .

I don't know why I just do , but that's really the only reason I like cardio is because , like , I like a little bit of sweat and I don't sweat my other workouts . Sometimes some people do sweat a lot in their resistance training workouts . So it just doesn't indicate the quality of the workout .

Another thing that doesn't indicate the quality of the workout is how quickly you go . So going fast , going without breaks , going without rest does not indicate that that was a good workout . It indicates it was a kind of workout where speed and or aerobics was at the heart of the workout .

If we're really trying to get stronger or change our muscle size and shape , then what we're trying to do is rest enough that each individual set in the strength or hypertrophy training is as fresh as possible . So that often requires us going slowly .

I was talking to my husband yesterday because he was speaking about his workouts taking a long time and I was like it's true , you can really do fast workouts . You can get a lot done . The general population can get a lot done in a short amount of time and those workouts are really valuable .

Sometimes if you're working on strength or hypertrophy , you either have to have a really long workout because of the amount of frequency you can train , or if you train very frequently , they can be shorter . But if you're getting a really good strength or resistance training , hypertrophy style workout , it is going to require a lot of rest .

So the speed and the lack of rest is just one style of training . It is not indicative of a quote unquote good workout , another one , and this one is hard , and I don't know if any trainers listen to this at this point .

I used to do a podcast that was all for trainers and I think trainers could really resonate with this next statement the idea that feeling like you're going to die or throw up is not a great indicator of the workout , and that is what a lot of people associate with a good workout or associate with handing over money to pay a trainer because they're like I

would never do this to myself , so let me pay a trainer . And so when you are a new trainer and you're trying to bring on clients , there is this tendency to want to create that for people . Or there's a feeling like you have to help people understand that each workout is not going to feel like .

You don't want to feel like you're going to pass out , you don't want to feel like you're going to throw up , and a lot of people who want to almost justify the money they're going to spend , they're craving that feeling . So a lot of that is re-education with people about . Like when we look at the picture of training .

I want you to have worked hard , but I want you to be able to come back and train tomorrow or train two days from now , and so it's just a funny way that people think about exercise , and the truth is is there is so much more value in having workouts where you feel fatigue but not exhaustion , effort but not depleted .

You want to actually have maybe a little surge of energy post-workout . Maybe you're tired , maybe you're like I need to sit down , but there is some element that the rest of your day , or whenever you're going forward , is going to have a little bit more energy because of the workout .

We don't want to feel like we just got , you know , bulldozed and then you have to go do the rest of your day and every workout . If you're just feeling like it's beating you down , down , down down , we got to do something about your training . That is not the goal . That is not the goal .

And so when someone's feeling that way , they're chasing it because it's so momentary . One workout like that , sure , but you can't train like that . We need to train in almost and this is a term that sometimes is used in training and maybe not used in the exact same way , but we kind of have to undulate .

We need to have some harder days , we need to have some more moderate days , we need to have some recovery days . That's really , really important .

I'm headed out of town soon and I was talking to my client and I said you know , I'm going to set you up with kind of a rest week while I'm gone , and usually I'll send you a lot of workouts and you'll do them on your own .

But I actually want you to rest this week because we have been training to a point where we've progressed and we're kind of at a peak place right now . I want you to take the next week to recover . Then we're going to come in , come back at a little less intensity and work back up .

We have to have those ebbs and flows in order for us to make progress . Because if you think about it , if you think about just like I don't have a great analogy for it but you're just like banging on a wall over and over and over again and nothing is happening and you can't go through the wall .

But if you step back and you look around and you can go around that wall , great . That is sometimes what happens with training . We get to the point where we're just like banging in something that's not going to change . We might need to rest and recover . We might need to try a different approach .

Training is about the long term . A workout is a one-off , a training is a whole picture , and you will never reach your goals with a series of strewn workouts . You won't make progressive goals . That's the truth of it . You will maybe feel better , you will maybe be happy that you worked out , but you're never going to make progressive gains .

You're not going to see progressive results if you aren't training . And so how do we then switch our mindset around this ? Because you're not wrong if you have felt this way before , if you're a person who feels like , oh , if I'm not really soreness is another one , I'm not really sore the next day . I understand we sort of associate that with success .

Right , we're like , oh , I was sore , so I worked hard enough to create the soreness . Now I usually and I've done an episode about this before , but I'll say it real quickly here Soreness does not indicate a good workout . It can sometimes tell us if we're hitting the places that we intend to hit , and I think that can be useful .

So we want maybe a little bit of it , especially if we know we've like , let's say , we don't really feel sore . Normally we start a new program . The program is focused on building our hamstring and glutes . I put a bunch of hamstring and glute stuff in . I think that if I haven't been doing that a lot , I should feel it at least a little in the beginning .

Then , if it starts to become not as present for me , it is likely because my body has become accustomed to it and then we're training at a difficulty level where I'm training hard but I'm not debilitatingly sore the next day .

You have to sort of take it with a grain of salt in terms of some days you're going to be sorer than others , but the goal to be constantly sore as a measure of a successful workout is not what we're trying to accomplish .

So right , if you have been around exercise culture or just you know like wellness culture in general , you might have in your mind that I really want to sweat a ton , I want it to be so hard , I feel like I'm going to throw up and I want to be super sore the next day . We got to unlearn these things because those results and those , I guess .

Outcomes of a workout are unsustainable . You will never train four to five times per week for six months . If you feel like that every time Absolutely not One you won't be able to maintain it . You won't be sleeping well , no-transcript .

The people who are most successful , both in the immediate and the long term , are the people who can train most consistently and with most frequency , and I know I've talked about those two things as separate things . Consistency does not equal frequency , but once we create a consistent habit aiming to increase , our frequency is going to make a big difference .

So if we train in a way that we can recover and train harder the next time , we want to do that . So how do we get around these things ? Here are the things we need to learn . We need to learn that we need adequate rest within the workout .

We need to feel as if we're not like thrilled to start the next set , necessarily , but we're ready to start the next set . Then we need to feel not like we're going to throw up in the workout , but we do need to feel like if I were to try for one or two more reps , I do not think I could get it Now . That's still working really hard .

I feel like people think that , unless I feel like I'm going to throw up , I'm not working hard enough . Oh , if you're at the edge of failure , if you're like I don't know if I can get the next two reps , you are working hard . And if you've experienced that , you know it .

You know , when you've picked up a weight and you are moving it and you're like I don't know if I could do this , that is good . Then , once you've done that , you're going to need the minutes to recover .

You're going to need to recover and you're going to get enough quality like that within a workout that when you are finished at the end of that workout , it's going to feel like I don't think I could do much more , but I also don't have to run home and take a three-hour nap and I could probably work out tomorrow .

Those are the feelings we're trying to capture . I know that I'm not giving you as concrete ways to do that , but I think you can piece that together . That's the sensation we're trying to get .

We're also realizing that not every workout is going to have the same intensity , not every workout is going to make us feel the same way and not every workout is going to be perfect , meaning if you are training with enough frequency and consistency to do it very regularly , you are bound to have a day where it doesn't go well , or you're bound to have a day

where you can't push as hard as you did before . But because you don't try to kill yourself in every workout and because you know you are going to come back , it doesn't matter . You've checked the box and you've probably moved the needle .

I think we sometimes think that we have to like we're one big battery pack and we got to drain the whole battery in one workout , where instead I'd like to think about it a little bit more .

Like we're a gas tank and we can run on that gas tank a little bit , but we got to fill it back up and we cannot be successful running on empty , and every workout we do is less of like we're using energy to get out of it , but it's also filling back up . I don't know that that was a perfect analogy . It kind of came to me as I'm sitting here .

But yes , our workout should be less of how do I feel terrible at the end of this and more of how do I give the most effort possible at the greatest difficulty level I can and still come back recharged and ready to do it the next time and realizing that I don't have to achieve all my goals in one workout . I am achieving goals over a training period .

So what matters in each workout is that I show up and I give the best effort that I can that day , and that's all that matters . When you start to feel that way , it is much , much easier to keep coming back . It really is Because there's so much less dread when the workout isn't going to feel like you're being thrown around .

You will feel the ideas like oh , I do this so that my body can feel good , I do this so my body can feel good . That mental switch so helpful . So what I want you to do is I want you to check on yourself and say where are places where I fall into these traps of sort of old school exercises , punishment mindset or old school .

Only a hard workout is a good enough workout or only a workout where I feel terrible is worth it . You know where do I fall into that ? And then , where can I change my perspective to improve my training consistency , to improve my training frequency and to improve my training quality ? Because we are training , we are not just working out .

All right , I want you to go and have an amazing rest of your day . I want you to let me know what you think about this , or if you have any questions , you can email me , betsy , at BeFosterStrongcom that's the letter B , fosterstrongcom .

You can send me an Instagram DM at Foster underscore strength and you can always leave a rating and review on the podcast , always , always , always , appreciated . Okay , until next time . I want you to go build your strongest body and I'll talk to you later . Bye .