Most of us have spent our whole lives living in comfort. We have been driven everywhere, we have worked desk jobs, we sleep in expensive, soft beds, we eat delicious food that it takes moments to prepare. We’re simply not used to pain, discomfort, intensity, or anything that forces us out of our comfort zone. That’s why so many people stop their exercising when it gets tough, when the exercise goes from being fun and pleasurable to hard and uncomfortable. We think it’s our bodies that can no longer keep going, but in reality it’s our minds that have had enough.

Our bodies are amazing machines. They’ve been evolving for millennia, and for the most part they were being used by our ancestors to hunt, fight, and survive incredibly harsh circumstances. Though today we live in comfort we still have the same bodies, the same potential for toughness, so that when we finally arise from the couch and attempt to exercise, we often don’t realize the potential our bodies have for development. That means that they can often go much further, lift more and last longer than we think.

There’s an expression that’s famous in fitness circles that goes, ‘The real training begins when you want to quit’. It means that it’s easy to do the first five reps, and that you’re not really pushing your body but rather simply putting it through the motions. It’s when you get to the sixth rep, the one that suddenly begins to hurt and you don’t think you can do it that the training really begins, that your body begins to break barriers and begin to adapt and grow. Quit then, and you lose the benefit, keep on going, and your body grows strong.

Word of warning however: while it is often our minds that want to quit, sometimes it is indeed our bodies. There is a distinct difference between discomfort and pain, between intensity and injury. If you don’t listen to your body, if you force it to keep going when it’s your body and not your mind that wants you to stop, then you’re liable to hurt yourself and ruin everything altogether.