COMFORT VS PAIN
Living in the midwest and getting a full experience of all the seasons, there is much debate on what people prefer, melting in the summer or freezing in the winter. Fans of the former will say they do just fine sweating in the heat while those who enjoy the cold temps advocate they can always put on more layers.
A similar argument can be made with training; which does someone prefer, the comfort of not making progress or the pain of moving the progress forward?
In order to make progress in the gym, you have to push yourself to do more than you have done previously (note: there are lots of ways to accomplish this). When it comes to nutrition, you have to hold back on the temptations to eat off-plan. Both of these could be deemed as a “pain”.
However, being content with current status results in comfort. Comfort in schedule, workload, effort and output.
What is ironic, eventually these two scenarios are flipped. Meaning too much comfort causes pain (poor health and fitness, lowered longevity and inefficiency). However, if done intelligently and correctly, after experiencing the repeated pain of progress, one gets more comfort (health, strength, high energy and efficiency).
So really the question becomes, do you sacrifice short term pain for long term comfort, or short term comfort for long term pain?
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