BREAKTHROUGH!!! A New Natural Painkiller – Your Body!
December 27th, 2009 § 4 Comments
Unless you’re a super athlete, think that marathons / triathlons are fun, or born with a wonderful ability to move at high speeds with low pain, building endurance HURTS!
The benefits of regular run/swim workouts are almost incredible – but for so many people, so are the challenges they face when starting out. And let’s not beat around the bush here – the main challenge new runners/swimmers face is PAIN. Leg cramps, abdominal cramps, foot pain, lung pain, nausea, an unexpected regurgitation of your last meal, and many others are all common examples of pain. And the LONGER you go, the more it HURTS.
Or does it? And with that open-ended question, comes an answer from the most unexpected place – your body. It seems that, the body itself has a limited tolerance for pain. Think of it as the brain getting very tired of hurting, and producing a solution that allows you to be a little more comfortable.
That sounds ridiculous, so let’s explain:
- When you first start running/swimming, pain comes from two places – your lungs working way harder than they are used to and muscle fatigue (for the same reason)
- Like so many other things our brain has a built in tolerance for pain, and once it’s had enough of a consistent dose of pain from the same activity, it gets really tired of feeling that way
- While we have no clinical evidence to support this statement, we’ve talked to enough endurance athletes to believe that your body eventually starts to produce some type of a numbing effect on that pain, allowing you to feel more comfortable
OK, so GREAT! What does that have to do with anything? OK check this out.
- If you’re new into running or swimming, you probably hate it, pain being no small factor in that feeling. IF that is the case, we have wonderful news for you.
- All you need to do to run/swim comfortably is give your brain enough consistent pain for it get bored with feeling painful and start this numbing effect. SO… while you may feel pain at miles 1 2, and 3, you might be able to run 4, 5, and 6 with significantly less pain
- We realize that sounds counterintuitive, but it’s true. Everyone’s body is different, of course, and some brains might be more willing that others to numb, but once you find that right dose of pain your body needs, you’ll start to notice the effects
For all you Cave Chow doubters out there, we have tested this theory personally, and it checks out. I will give you my own example. I typically do a longer, low intensity run once a week. I run half a mile, stretch, and then get started. Here’s a graph of my pain over the next 10 miles (very consistent week to week):
- Mile 1 – Nice and easy, feels good
- Mile 2 – Ugh, body feels unnatural
- Mile 3 – K, I might stop and do this tomorrow
- Mile 4 – Jeez, I have 6 more miles of this? This hurts
- Mile 5 – K, cramping, tightness, easing a bit
- Mile 6 – Flying, making great time, little effort or pain
- Mile 7 – Same story, sped way up for a while but now back to pace
- Mile 8 – Starting to feel the effects of lack of hydration / carbs (if I didn’t prepare properly)
- Mile 9 – Hitting mini pain threshold from reasons other than muscles/lung capacity
- Mile 10 – K, now almost 100% numb, finish the last mile in almost a sprint
Don’t believe me? Might want to give it a shot and see for yourself… running/swimming is a little harder to hate when you can’t feel anything…
Cave Crew
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what’s your take on hiking?
great exercise, taking in mother nature, and bring some friends for company -