Oh, the pain!

Okay...so one of my favorite and least favorite things about exercise is the pain during/after. Part of me hates it and dreads it and spends every waking minute up until my workout thinking about it and trying to find ways to get out of it ("oh...I think I left my hair straightener on at home...I should probably go straight home after work!"). Another (crazier) part of me longs for it and looks forward to it with a kind of sadistic anticipation. The thing is, if it's huritng, it's working.

Now, I don't mean the 'ow, I just threw my back out kind of pain' or the 'jeez, my knee sure hurts when I bend it at that impossible angle' kind of pain, I'm talking about that deep, burning, aching pain you get when your muscles are screaming at you not to make them do what they're doing anymore! I'm talking about the kind of pain you get from a minute of jump squats (don't get me started on jump squats...) or scissor lunges. This is the kind of pain that lets you know that you're working - and while your muscles are hating you now, they will thank you later (just not in the next 2-3 days, trust me, they'll still hate you during that time frame).

I have a real love/hate relationship with this kind of pain. No one likes being in pain (I'm speaking generally here, creeps!), but I try to view workout pain as a good kind of pain. It's a manifest sign that you are doing your body good and that you are making changes. Nothing worth having comes easy - and this is especially true regarding losing weight and getting stronger. No pain, no gain, as they say! So, when I am in the throes of aforementioned jump squat hell, I try to repeat this mantra: "sexy bikini bum, sexy bikini bum" to help me visualize the changes that will result from the searing pain in my quads and glutes.

So, with all that being said, my triceps hurt, thanks to the last two days of workouts, which have apparently been tricep intensive! You wouldn't think such a relatively small muscle could cause that much pain - but they can. I suppose 3-4 minutes of tricep dips will do that, along with countless pushups. I just have to remember that the pain I'm currently experiencing driving/typing/opening doors/moving at all will all be worth it in tank top season. Embracing the pain is really a paradigm shift - you have to move from 'pain is bad, I don't want to workout because it hurts!' to 'pain is good, I'm changing my body and embracing the change!' Embracing the change involves embracing the pain, no matter how much you want to cry, no matter how you want to stop, no matter how much you just want to quit and never come back. Keep going, yell louder, and love the pain - it means it's working!