Push Through

Feel like quitting? Read this.

We all feel it. Sometimes training gets tough, sometimes we are just having a bad day but whatever the reason, it feels like we have reached our limit and can’t go on. And in fact, we did reach our limit, or more exactly, we reached ONE limit. The limit of our comfort. And this is exactly where progress is made.

Any kind of fitness training follows a principle called the general adaptation syndrome. This will be developed in a future article but to make it simple, the purpose of training is to put stress on our body through our workouts, and let our body adapt to it through recovery. If there is no stress, there is no adaptation. If there is no fitness challenge, there is no fitness progress.

Every time it feels difficult, recognize that this is an opportunity to put a new kind of stress on your body and push the limit of your comfort further. You should actually be pleased when exercise feels hard because this is exactly when you get a chance to become stronger, leaner, faster or whatever your goal is.

On the contrary, if you stop, you lose a chance to stress your body and induce adaption (progress).

This also means that all the repetitions or time you spent training until you reach this tough feeling become useless. Pushing through for a few more reps or a little more time is enough to force your body to adapt and progress, and makes all the previous work worth it.

So next time you feel like quitting, remember you have reached a critical point where you have 2 options: either quitting and giving up on all your previous effort and the chance to progress, or endure the difficulty a little longer and make progress.

This works for an exercise when you feel like not doing the last reps, for cardio when you feel like stopping earlier than planned, or a workout that you feel like skipping. Actually, it applies for almost everything in life. Pushing through the limit of your comfort is what separates you from getting better or staying in the same place.

Remember it doesn’t feel too hard because you are not strong enough, but because you were strong enough to come so far with ease. Now is the time to push the limit of what is easy even further. Do this every time and those small steps forward will eventually add up to great progress you didn’t even think was possible.

However, a final word is needed about proper recovery management. It is important to understand the difference between working hard and working too hard, so please read our articles about recovery, pain, and safe training to make sure you never overdo it.

One more rep!