Lightning Pilot

While I mostly agree, when giving advice to "push through pain" one needs to define, as precisely as possible, "pain." The reason is that anyone who needs that advice probably has no clue what you mean. People who have been athletic all their lives certainly know this, but people who haven't generally don't.

Unfortunately, "pain" is highly subjective. What I call pain, what you call pain, and what a novice calls pain are likely to be three different, possibly very different, sensations. You and I know what "good pain" feels like, we also know what the bad feels like from experience. Those definitions also change as we age. We have to try to give the novice, or even one who was athletic, fell off the wagon, and is now trying to get back on, the best description we can. That is not easy, IMHO. Just sitting here at the keyboard, having had a good workout yesterday, and being good with words, I find it difficult. To me, what I feel when pushing my limits is "normal"— that is what I'm supposed to feel, and it feels "good" because I know it means I'm getting stronger. Or maybe I'm just a masochist and don't know it …