Let's Talk About "Linda" and Her Struggles With Weight Loss

I used to manage a woman named Linda. Linda was 52 years old and had been overweight her entire life. She did everything wrong as far as keeping her weight under control. Linda was a big-time compulsive eater and ate every 2 hours the entire day, to "keep her metabolism from slowing down". She even lectured me about this on a regular basis, saying that my metabolism would slow down if I continued to eat just a few times per day. She gave everyone diet tips and the two years she worked for me she stayed 100+ pounds overweight the entire time. Linda said she couldn't exercise due to fibromyalgia.

"When I Try to Exercise, It Hurts Boss!"

Linda's excuse for not exercising was her "fibromyalgia". Fibromyalgia is a legitimate condition where people feel fatigued and have body-wide pain, but there are many people who do as Linda did and claim they have this condition as an excuse to be lazy. Linda was not diagnosed by a doctor, she said that it was obvious because when she exercised it "hurt." When I asked her what her symptoms were she said that her legs would get a burning sensation when she rode an exercise bike and she would breath "really hard" even just walking on a treadmill. "Boss…when I walk at the same speed as other people I breath a lot harder and it hurts….I tried to lift weights once and it hurt for 4 days. I hate having fibromyalgia!"

Do Fit People Simply Have a Higher Pain Tolerance?

The thing about pain is that you can't tell how much pain someone else is feeling. When I am doing an intense interval session it hurts "quite a bit", during the sprinting part. I don't feel like anything is being damaged, but it takes mental discipline to keep pushing. Pain tolerance is a weird thing as well. Two people can feel the same amount of pain and mentally cope with it in different ways. I am positive that my interval hurts me much more than Linda's walking speed hurts Linda. The difference is that I know that the reward will be worth it and part of me likes to see how far I can push myself. Linda simply has a personality where she searches for the path of least resistance. Unfortunately that is the path of least reward as well.

The Skill of Pushing Through Pain, Creates Elite Athletes

I believe that pushing through pain (not injury) is what allows your body to reach the next level of conditioning. I am convinced that some of the fittest athletes in the world simply operate longer and more often on the edge of pain – adapt – and then push to the next level. Once they reach the next higher level of conditioning they push to the edge of pain again and they continue to progress.

Here is An Entertaining Fact About Pain Tolerance…

Swearing can actually increase pain tolerance. Here is an excerpt from the article I'm linking to, which describes a recent study examining pain tolerance.

They recruited 67 undergraduates, and asked to make two short lists of words – one containing five words they might use after hitting themselves on the thumb with a hammer, the other containing five words they might use to describe a table. The participants submerged one of their hands into room temperature water for three minutes, to provide a standardized starting point, then transferred it to a container of cold water and instructed to keep it submerged for as long as they could. In one condition, they were told to repeat the first swear word they had included in their list; in another, they repeated one of the words describing a table.

Contrary to their hypothesis, they found that swearing actually reduced the amount of pain felt. The participants kept their hands submerged in the cold water longer, and also reported experiencing less pain, when they repeated a swear word than when they repeated a word describing a table. Swearing was also associated with increased heart rate.

Swearing therefore enabled the participants to tolerate to the cold temperature for longer, and also caused a reduction in their perception of the pain felt. A difference between males and females was observed. Swearing led to a greater reduction in pain perception and a bigger increase in heart rate in females

"Damn this F@#&%N Interval Workout!"

I would probably attempt to swear during intervals, but I am typically out of breath…plus I'd get booted out of the gym. Swearing has come in handy a few times when I've stubbed my toe or hit my head. I actually believe jumping around helps ease pain tolerance as well. If I hit my head, knee, or "funny bone"…I can't stand still. A few F-bombs and circling around or jumping around when I jam my toe works wonders. Who made up the name funny bone anyway? It is anything but funny when you hit that part of your arm!

What's Your Opinion on Being Fit Vs Tolerating Pain?

I would love to hear your opinions on this subject matter. I think there are some people who so probably feel more pain, but my guess in that a large portion of the population simply lives a life of seeking the path of least resistance. There is always some type of discomfort to be expected or price to be paid for anything worthwhile…right?

Why Do We Push, Then Rest A Little, Then Push Hard Again?

Since intense exercise burns a lot of calories, why don't we just push hard the whole time instead of mixing in periods of active rest? I mean…if you have 15 minutes to do some form of training aimed at fat loss, why not spend the whole time running hard on a treadmill or exercise bike? It will make sense when I explain lactic acid, oxygen debt, and their roles in fat loss.

Increase Oxygen Debt For Maximum After-Burn Effects

When you do a sprint or an intense circuit, your body can't supply oxygen at a rate fast enough to fuel the muscle. Another energy system (anarobic) has to kick in to "assist" with providing energy to the muscle. After the intense effort is completed, your body has to basically repay that "borrowed energy"…it owes oxygen to get those muscles back to their normal state. The more energy your body borrowed during an intense effort the more oxygen it owes…this is called Oxygen Debt.

A Large "Oxygen Debt" is Key in Boosting the Metabolism

So after an intense effort like a sprint, you continue to breath hard and your heartbeat is raised…this is your body's way of repaying the oxygen debt. Does that makes sense? Your metabolism is operating at a higher rate (breathing and heart rate)…to repay the oxygen it borrowed. I'm simplifying this a bit, but this is the basic principle. The larger the oxygen debt created by your workout the longer it will take to repay it…with the benefit of more calories burned for a longer period of time after you are done exercising.

The Best Way to Create a Large Oxygen Debt

To create an oxygen debt, the effort has to be intense enough to switch over to "borrowed energy" -or- anaerobic mode. Sprinting or proper resistance training is the way to accomplish this. The reason things like intervals, kettlebell circuits, and other forms of resistance intervals work so well is that you are performing the next intense effort before "catching your breath". The combo of intense efforts while already breathing hard, is the best way to insure maximum oxygen debt. This is one of the reasons why interval training is ideal for boosting the metabolism.

The New Way of Looking at Lactic Acid

Lactic acid is the result of intense effort and coaches used to tell athletes to avoid training in a way that produced too much lactic acid. Professor Thomas D. Fahey of California State University thinks differently…"The body converts glucose, a substance removed from the blood only sluggishly, to lactate, a substance removed and used rapidly…Using lactic acid as a carbohydrate middleman helps you [metabolize] carbohydrates from your diet, without increasing insulin or stimulating fat synthesis." So…lactic acids helps your body burn more carbohydrates and ultimately more calories…assisting your weight loss efforts.

The Best Way to Increase Lactic Acid

Again…An intense effort that can't be sustained for long is what it takes to increase lactic acid. It makes sense you would want to do a few of these intense efforts. So, you would do an intense effort, rest a bit, then do another intense effort…sound familiar? This is an exact description of interval training.

Doing the Intense Part of the Interval With Little Rest

We already talked about why pushing hard before catching your breath all the way was a way to increase oxygen debt, it is also a way to increase lactic acid. After an intense effort you accumulate a bit of lactic acid in the muscle and then your body begins to remove it. You want to perform another intense effort before the body is recovered to assist the body in accumulating more lactic acid in your muscles. With enough intervals you will have a buildup of lactic acid…and because of this, your body will be able to burn more calories than normal after your workout is finished.

Proper Intervals Increase Lactic Acid and Oxygen Debt

So the reason why a trainer like Craig Ballantyne recommends short rest after his Crazy 8 Body Weight Circuit is to insure that you increase both lactic acid and oxygen debt. This is the same reason that you don't rest 5 minutes in between intense efforts when doing HIIT. A proper interval training routine should be just enough rest to be able to push hard for the next intense effort…and you should be breathing pretty damn hard when the whole series of intervals is finished!