To Experience Less Discomfort in Your Next Workout, Expect MORE Discomfort

Don’t expect your next workout to be easy.  As you drive to your next workout, don’t tell yourself, “Leg press really won’t be that bad.”  If we expect our workout to be “not that bad” and in reality, leg press turns out to be uncomfortable, we experience the discomfort as REALLY uncomfortable. 

According to Steve Magness, best-selling author, and coach to multiple Olympians, as we exercise or challenge our bodies (during a strength training workout, a bike ride, or a run), the brain makes an internal calculation about whether this feels easier or harder than expected. If it feels harder than expected, we perceive the discomfort as REALLY uncomfortable. 

On the other hand, if we remind ourselves that the workout is going to be tough, we actually experience the discomfort as “not so bad.”  Stated otherwise, expecting it to be hard actually makes it easier. 

Apply this to your next workout:

Expect the workout to be hard. 

Expect discomfort. 

Expect the burn. 

And in doing so, the workout will be that much more tolerable. 

Final Note: This applies to your strength workouts and 5Ks.  But evidence suggests that it also likely applies to all “hard” experiences in life.