Train Smarter, Not Harder

The No Pain, No Gain attitude has haunted the halls of every gym since the dawn of time. As a sort of motivational tactic, you’re told you need to suffer in order to make the results you desire.

You’re never told how this overbearing sacrifice will benefit you, but that’s just the way it is. Right? Wrong! Those proposing this concept of fitness couldn’t be more wrong. Fitness is an outlet that’s meant to enrich your life, you don’t have to sacrifice your happiness to achieve your fitness goals.

What most people don’t realize is that harder work does not translate to better results. You can spend all of your time and energy doing a forty set workout, but you’ll likely end up overtraining. Overtraining is detrimental to your overall progress and negatively affects your central nervous system, so you can see how this kind of mentality doesn’t hold up. The same goes for dieting. If you force down an unfavorable diet over short periods of time and allow yourself “cheat days”, your chances of binge eating increases dramatically. Learn how to train smarter. Manipulate your diet in such a way that you can be satisfied with your meals, avoid hunger, and actually enjoy what you eat. You don’t have to force yourself to eat the same pre-packaged meal 5 times per day. Who enjoys that?

The same can be said for your training. Learn how to do the most practical amount of work that produces the best results, and tailor your workouts to your liking. If you hate running on the treadmill and enjoy playing soccer, then by all means, use soccer as your form of cardio. Your health and wellness are not dependent on your suffering. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Figure out what you want out of your fitness journey, and make it work for you. It shouldn’t be the other way around. This applies to all areas of health and wellness. Train smarter, not harder.