'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 Outdated Concept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.

verywellfit

The Young: Pint-Sized, Ambition-Large 

"Powerlifting helps children develop connective tissue, including ligaments and tendons, muscles and bones, and also helps to build a foundational strength."
Tom DeLong, director, science education, National Council for Certified Personal Trainers

"Sometimes when I'm lifting, I will see a kid staring at me like I'm some famous person and then they go ask their parents if they can do stuff like me."
"A lot of people look at a sport like powerlifting and think that girls can't do that and I want to prove them wrong."
"I don't just like powerlifting; I love it. It makes me feel strong, and like I can do anything."
Etta Nichols, 11, Spokane, Washington

"Lifting has helped Etta realize her strengths."
"The key is the right coach."
Chet Nichols, Etta's father

"Not only is she physically strong and co-ordinated for her age but she has learned a lot about herself through powerlifting -- how hard she can push herself, how she can accomplish things she puts her mind to and how success is not given, it's earned."
Eric Cafferty, Etta's powerlifting coach

"As both a pediatric orthopedic surgeon and a mother, this would not be my first choice of an activity for my child."
"[The potential dangers of the sport include] putting too much stress on the growth centers and causing growth anomalies."
Dr. Abigail Allen, chief of pediatric orthopedic surgery, Mount Sinai Hospital, New York 

"It has become very en vogue for young ladies to be athletic and strong", observed Martin Drake, national chairman of the Amateur Athletic Union Strength Sports, of the trickle-down effect from adult gyms where children are now being encouraged to emulate adults in powerlifting. The industry itself is wholly given to enthusiasm over introducing children to weight lifting and encouraging them to excel. Young, very young girls become celebrated for their training and physical endurance, enabling them to lift weights two times their actual body weight; quite the feat indeed.

Girls Who Powerlift

Five-year-old Luma Valones, for example is noted for performing weighted dead lifts, squats and bench presses. She has undergone two years of training, after all. "Happy Luma" is the name of her own Instagram page. Her mother Nicole Lacanglacang helps to share videos of her daughter raising pink weights over her chest. Luma's mother is a herself a powerlifter who began training Luma in her garage in 2015, beginning with a PCV pipe barbell holding 1.5-kilograms.

Now Luma is able to dead lift 24 kilograms, 8 over her total body weight. "She tells me she wants to get bigger, that she doesn't want skinny arms -- just big muscles", explains Ms. Lacanglacang. Luma pipes in to declare her intention "to be the strongest person in the universe". USA Powerlifting  has  hosted the annual youth national competition since 2015. Etta Nichols took part in the competition. "It's like the Super Bowl of powerlifting", she enthusiastically explained.

In Irvine, California, the United States Powerlifting Association has a roster of 1,400 children from the ages of 13 and over who compete at its meets. In Lake Buena Vista, Florida, the Amateur Athletic Union hosts competitors from ages five and up at powerlifting events dating back to 1994, and welcomes a steady stream of youth participants, now that weight lifting among the young and the very young has become a national phenomenon.

johnnyfit.com

Many credit the high visibility of social media for the growth in popularity among the young for powerlifting. Etta has become an unofficial ambassador for juvenile powerlifters, posting her gym adventures on her Instagram page. It is heady stuff, to become a minor celebrity among the cognoscenti of powerlifting; to make a name for oneself while a child, doing what committed adults are invested in.

The 2018 USA Powerlifting Nations competition, points out Priscilla Ribic, executive director and chair of the women's committee, became a showcase for female talent when it was overwhelmingly represented by 75 percent women powerlifters. Those involved in the industry believe in the health benefits for young participants. Their theories of the benefits to accrue to young children in powerlifting, however, are not necessarily shared by health professionals.

Despite which, parents with  young children who powerlift insist they take care to ensure their children are safe in the gym. Etta aspires to take herself to the Amateur Athletic Union's annual Powerlifting World Championship next September. She enjoys her status as a noted powerlifter and wants to continue to be recognized as a symbol other young people will want to copy, inspired by her own success.

crossfitgarage.com

Strength training, not weightlifting

Don't confuse strength training with weightlifting, bodybuilding or powerlifting. These activities are largely driven by competition, with participants vying to lift heavier weights or build bigger muscles than those of other athletes. This can put too much strain on young muscles, tendons and areas of cartilage that haven't yet turned to bone (growth plates) — especially when proper technique is sacrificed in favor of lifting larger amounts of weight.
For kids, light resistance and controlled movements are best — with a special emphasis on proper technique and safety. Your child can do many strength training exercises with his or her own body weight or inexpensive resistance tubing. Free weights and machine weights are other options.

“Why Professional Football Players Chose Not to Reveal Their Concussion Symptoms during a Practice or Game”

"What can be difficult to rationalize is that this type of behaviour is occurring at a time when athletes have never been better educated about concussions."
"This is not a problem isolated to CFL (Canadian Football League) players, as we have seen identical behaviour in male and female university athletes."
"What we have to figure out now is how we get athletes to change their behaviour when routine concussion education may not be enough."
Dr. Scott Delaney, assistant professor, researcher, McGill University

"Oh, there's definitely a lot more awareness. We have a guy watching from the press box now, and if they think there's a player who needs to be pulled from the game, he has no choice."
"It happened to a guy on our team. He caught a ball and fell on his head. He was OK, but he just sat there, didn't want to jump up too fast, and the spotter pulled him and made him go through the protocol."
"He was fine and came back later in the game, but they checked him out."
Ernest Jackson, wide receiver, Ottawa Redblacks, Montreal Alouettes

Ottawa Redblacks wide receiver Ernest Jackson (9) catches a touchdown pass during overtime CFL Grey Cup action Sunday, November 27, 2016 in Toronto. Nathan Denette / THE CANADIAN PRESS

A study conducted by a team of researchers from the McGill University Health Centre seems to conclude that though those involved in professional sport are now aware of the dangers inherent in concussions, particularly in sports where repeat concussions were always accepted as part of the game, now equating with long-term, extremely dangerous health effects, the players themselves tend to minimize the dangers they face, reluctant to take precautionary measures after a concussion to ensure they heal well before continuing to play.

The study resulted from a 2016 survey where players voluntarily reported on their experiences from the 2015 season. Published in January 2018's Clinical Journey of Sports Medicine, roughly one quarter (23.4 percent) of the 454 players responding to the survey reported having suffered at least one concussion during practise or a game, while 82 percent of that one quarter kept silent about the concussion rather than reporting it to a coach or training staff member. Moreover a mere 6 percent of players who had claimed they intended to seek medical treatment post-game, did.

Dr. Delaney, team physician for the CFL's Montreal Alouettes, led the study whose results present as no big surprise in recognition of the competitive nature of the athletic community and their traditional reaction to injuries, seeing them as an impediment to continue playing the entire game, and thus minimizing injury to themselves, keeping it from those who might insist they sit out the rest of the game and seek medical help. It is largely the players themselves for whom head trauma is a matter to be kept to themselves.

Now, however, that the sport industry itself has recognized the reluctance of players to reveal their injuries, independent concussion spotters have been deployed to identify those instances where players appear to have suffered serious injury, so they could intervene and remove them from the game. Dr. Delaney distributed 100 questionnaires to each of the nine head trainers and therapists in the CFL to distribute to players at the 2016 training camps. In total 662 players had taken part in at least one game.

And of that 662 number, there were 454 voluntary respondents, casting their minds back over the 2015 season of play to recall incidents of injury and how they had reacted to them. Of the respondents, 106 felt reason to believe that had suffered a concussion, while 87 of that number admitted they hadn't sought out medical attention; the most common reason cited (from 49 of the 106) being they failed to identify the concussion as serious, feeling that no further harm would result when they continued to play after sustaining the injury.

Other reasons fell into place when 42 players revealed they hadn't wanted to be removed from a specific game, and 41 claimed to have been concerned with the prospect of missing future games should they admit to having suffered a concussion. Dr. Delaney concluded that awareness of concussion symptoms and the follow-up medical protocol often fails to translate to "safe and appropriate behaviour at the time of the injury".

He speculated, along with the other researchers in discussion whether the perception among players of the seriousness of the issue might be brought home more effectively, causing players to react differently should the word 'concussion' be replaced with the term 'brain injury'. Brain injury necessarily conjures up deep-seated fears of possible lethal end-results, while the word concussion seems far less urgent, given the fact that so many children, let alone adults, at some time in their lives do suffer a concussion.