'No Pain, No Gain'? Outdated Concept

"It was so painful, but I was stubborn and finished out the race. Afterward, I could barely walk."
"If I say I'm going to complete a goal, however, I'm going to complete it."
"I regret that I couldn't pull the plug psychologically."
Janet Sherman, 57, Wyoming

"As a society, we are more active in sports than ever before. But at the same time, as a culture we have developed a 'no days off' mentality."
"People worry that if they stop, they won't start again."
"Leave some time in there for taking care of yourself, and make it an integral part of your training."
Adrienne Langelier, sports psychology consultant, Texas

"'No pain, no gain' -- no thank you. For too long, we have glamorized that way of thinking. It's not sustainable."
"We were given the message that in order to succeed, we needed punishing workouts. In the short term, that might work, but the burden of proof now shows that it's damaging in the long run."
Mark Cucuzzella, physician, professor, West Virginia University School of Medicine

"A stress fracture, if you continue to run on it, may progress to a full fracture and require a much longer recovery period, for example."
Adam Teneford, Spaulding National Running Center, Harvard Medical School

"I see amateurs who want to train like pros, and they end up getting hurt. They forget that pros have a schedule that allows for all the rest and recovery they need, without a job interfering."
"The rest of us need to balance our hard training with low- and no-effort training."
Jonathan Levitt, 28, sales manager, Boston

There are a whole range of health risks associated with excessive exercise     Credit: Getty Images

Jonathan Levitt is so utterly convinced of the need that people addicted to sports have a requirement to believe that stress, no matter where it emanates from really is stress, and fundamentally harmful both psychologically and physiologically, that he became one of three people committed to making an effort through the proliferation of warnings over remaining too focused on a goal to understand that harm comes with a lack of awareness, stimulating them to create the social media hashtag #restdaybrags.

He made common cause with two well-known names in sport, U.S. Olympic swimmer Caroline Burckle and Spartan course racer Amelia Boone to unveil that effort almost two years ago. The message is making inroads finally in peoples' consciousness. Amateur athletes and so-called week-end warriors have for far too long set aside the pain that informs them they're doing themselves harm, opting instead to grind through the pain to accomplish the goal at hand; finishing a race, pushing themselves beyond a safe limit opting completion of a course.

Arguing with themselves that the discomfort is temporary, and they'll 'get over it', convincing themselves that there's nothing amiss. People tend to automatically run through their minds how their dedication to sport fitness came at the cost of time and physical effort, that to slack down even briefly would have the potential of setting them back from the fitness level they've managed to reach and complicate their goal to up the ante to challenge their bodies even more.

It's that will to ignore the signals the body is sending through pain messages, that all too frequently leads to injury, illness and exhaustion, all of which should be avoided for that's when the true complications set in, limiting the capacity of the body to continue its upward thrust to the next fitness level. Already in pain because of the grim and false belief that to stop is to admit defeat, carrying on invariably leads to a secondary injury.

What mindfulness in recognizing the body's messages and the injuries that can occur without a rest, is required to incorporate that needed break into the entire concept of the training effort, represents an integral and necessary acknowledgement that enough is enough, before carrying on.

Signs You May Need a Break

• Fatigue or physical exhaustion
• Soreness that won't go away
• Dreading your workouts
• Poor performance
• You're not able to progress in your workouts
• You feel unmotivated or bored
• An injury or illness
• You can't stand the thought of exercising
• You have a trip coming up and you know you won't have the time or motivation for full-blown workouts

How Long Does It Take to Lose Fitness? 

The question is, whether you're taking a break by choice or because you have to, how long can you take a break before it affects your fitness? Some basic statistics:

• Aerobic power can decline about 5-10% in three weeks.
• It takes about 2 months of inactivity to completely lose the gains you've made.
• Extremely fit exercisers will experience a rapid drop in fitness during the first three weeks of inactivity before it tapers off.
• Muscular strength and endurance last longer than aerobic fitness. Muscles retain a memory of exercises for weeks or even months.

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