The Good Pain

Pain.  Pain can be a good thing.  I’ve had my share of pain the past few years.  Perhaps the most painful event recently was the passing of my mom.  However, not all pain is bad.  Sometimes pain is necessary for growth.  Here’s my story of growth over the last year.

This past year I’ve been on a quest to improve my health.  When I started, I weighed 270 pounds!  So far I’ve lost close to 40 pounds, but I wanted more than a simple diet.  I wanted a permanent transformation.  After much Googling I settled on a few simple changes.

Wim Hof

The first big change was adopting the Wim Hof Method to boost my immune system and overall health.  Combining it with Yoga was a big key to losing weight early on.  The Wim Hof Method is a regimen that consists of three "pillars": cold therapy, breathing and meditation.  This might sound crazy, but Wim has been backed up by scientific research.

Several studies have shown that exposure to cold increases brown fat and the capacity for non-shivering thermogenesis. It also reduces white adipose tissue, the form of fat related to obesity. There is some evidence that brown adipose tissue may reduce the risk of diabetes through uptake of glucose and lipids. The cold exposure is the most painful part of Wim Hof. On top of ice baths and cold showers, I initially did ice baths with just my hands to work through the pain.

The breathing aspect of the Wim Hof Method has three phases:  controlled hyperventilation, exhalation, and retention.  The first phase involves around 30 cycles of breathing. Each cycle goes as follows: take a powerful breath in, fully filling the lungs. Breathe out by passively releasing the breath, but not actively exhaling. Repeat this cycle at a steady rapid pace thirty times.  You’ll notice your limbs get a bit tingly.  Then, on the last exhale, exhale fully and hold.  Continue to hold until you have a strong urge to inhale.  (After a few cycles, I average around a 3 minute hold.)  Finally, inhale fully, hold it in and clench your muscles for about 15 seconds.  Then start the next cycle.  I usually do 4-6 cycles in the morning.

I switched to a better diet in general.  Sure I still have the occasional burger, but for the most part I try to eat healthier.  Along with this change, I also started counting calories.  I originally started off with the Argus app, but now I use a Fitbit Versa, the successor to my beloved Pebble.  (I gave intermittent fasting a shot, but it wasn’t for me.)

In July I started running.  Talk about pain!  I used to be in really good shape, but now I was struggling to run a 15 minute mile.  Shin splints, side stitches, and blisters nearly killed me during the first few months.  I gradually worked through these, and now I’m averaging a 10 minute mile.

Finally, with the cold of winter, I was forced to stop running outdoors.  It was just too hard on my lungs.  I know, I take cold baths, so cold air should be fine.  Right? … No.  I got a gym membership and started running on their treadmills, but I also started lifting weights a few nights per week.  I hadn’t lifted weights since college.  Those first few weeks were brutal.

That brings me back to pain.  Whether it is my legs burning during a run, the aches the day after lifting weights, or the piercing cold of an ice bath, becoming healthy takes no small amount of pain.  DOMS, Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, is a big part of that.  Basically, exercising creates small micro-tears in the muscle fibers.  This, in turn, creates a whole biological chain reaction in the body that leads to new muscle growth.  As the saying goes, “No pain, no gain.”

It’s more than that, though.  It’s pushing yourself a bit further than you thought possible.  I ran a 5K one Saturday a few months back.  That’s something I wouldn’t have even considered doing a year ago.  Going for a 15 minute soak in 35 degree water? … It’s really not that bad!  You just have to push through that initial pain.  As grandma used to say, “It’s too far from your heart to kill ya.”