No Pain No Gain
You may have heard the term no pain no gain before and wondered what exactly does it mean? Well, no pain no gain refers to a number of different forms of pain that relate to bodybuilding and weight training. A lot of people get confused and think that no pain no gain refers to you having to actually hurt or injure yourself in the gym to force your muscles to grow but this is not the case. The last thing your want to do is injure yourself as that won’t help you grow new muscle, that will only impede your progress.
In the context of bodybuilding, no pain no gain refers to you needing to train your muscles to the point of muscular pain or total fatigue. If your training is as intense as you can possible go you will definitely step into the pain zone and this intensity refers to the pain you will encounter when you train as hard as you can. By training this way you will cause yourself great muscular pain and this pain inevitable leads to a gain in muscle tissue as your body adapts by trying to grow new muscle that can accommodate the type of intense muscle training you regularly perform. When you feel this pain during a workout you will also probably feel an intense pump in your muscles as well.
The other reference to no pain no gain in bodybuilding circles is how your body feels the next day or next few days after your intense muscle training session. If you perform a workout and the next day you are not sore and the following days after that you are also not sore, than you obviously didn’t train hard or intensely enough to stimulate new growth in your muscles. When you are sore in the muscles or feel a muscular pain in the muscles after a workout for a day or two you know you have trained hard enough and therefore you will grow. Hence, no pain no gain.
No pain no gain is a basic way of saying if you don’t train with enough intensity you won’t benefit fully from your workouts. A bit of muscular pain in the muscles you have just trained over the next couple of days is your body’s way of giving you a sign that your workout intensity is high and you are on the right track. Even the world’s top bodybuilders still feel pain after their workouts and this way they know they are still working hard enough in the gym. So remember, no pain no gain.