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Comment by trabant00 | Hacker News Reader

Learning to push through discomfort and pain is how you get injured. Both in sports and in general life. Ignoring those signs should be reserved for the most exceptional of circumstances. I would slap the enthusiasm out of young me, knowing now the price I have to pay everyday.

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Learning what is actually pain vs. discomfort is important. Exercising is often uncomfortable, but it shouldn't be painful. Learning how to deal with being uncomfortable both physically and mentally is a key skill in life.

Somewhat related, but my view of suffering really changed after reading "Man's Search for Meaning".

last February I was in Tokyo training for the marathon. Whilst I was on a long training run round the city, I received a message that the marathon was just cancelled. At this point I decided to run as far as possible as it was my only chance to do so. Around half way I started to get a weird pain in the side of my ankle but pushed through it.

I still have that pain almost a year later, multiple MRIs and orthopedics have been unsuccessful in finding out what it is. I'm only now able to run very short (2.5km) distances. Pushing yourself to ignore pain is very possible and can be very dangerous.

I disagree with such a hard and fast rule. Some pain and discomfort can and should be pushed through. Other pain should not be.

Pain should be a signal to consider carefully what you are doing.

Really depends on the activity. For any activity where overuse injuries are common, it’s probably a good heuristic.

I consider myself reasonably fit, but I’m not sure any of the activities I do strictly require physical pain. Soreness? Fatigue? Sure. But rarely pain, unless I’ve made a mistake.

> Soreness? Fatigue? Sure. But rarely pain, unless I’ve made a mistake.

A big part of this is that people inexperienced with pushing themselves will mistake the soreness and fatigue for pain and quit. It's easy for you to say this because you claim to be "fairly fit". You have experience beyond average (at least in the US).

If you mistake the soreness and fatigue for pain and stop at that moment, you will still get in better shape. Really. It just gonna be slow. If you mistake pain for soreness and fatigue, you wont exercise until that injury you just caused yourself heals.

Also, if you are overweight, did not exercised for long, but are ambitious, that is the prime situation where it is easy to cause yourself an injury. Fairly fit means that your body is adjusted exercise at least somewhat and joints and such can withstand.

I had the same experience. Cause myself long term injuries because overtraining and "no excuses push it through" mindset.

When I realized how stupid the mindset is and how deep in me that mindset was, it was too late.

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