Did you know that you can overcome pain? This might sound like something out of the realm of superheroes or shadowy ninjas, but the secrets to this ability are not out of this world.

They are in fact very accessible to anyone. These techniques are what elite performers use to create world records, but you can apply them as well in your everyday life. The key lies in modifying your mindset and changing some basic ways you do things.

Most people cannot handle pain. When the average person feels just a little inkling of discomfort, whether mental or physical, they will stop what they are doing. They might go out to exercise, but when they start feeling slightly tired, they quit.

However, the problem here isn’t physical. It’s mental. If the effort becomes just a little bit painful, the vast majority of individuals have a weak mind that forces them to end whatever they are doing.

Elite performers don’t have this problem. When the going gets tough, they continue. The secret? They view pain differently.

Your Mind Can Surpass Pain

The thing is that your mind has the wonderful ability to surpass pain. In fact, it can even modify pain. This is because oftentimes, the intensity of the pain you feel is highly dependent on your mental processes.

Research has shown that “the perception of pain is sensitive to various mental processes such as the feelings and beliefs that someone has about pain. It is therefore not exclusively driven by the noxious input.”

The way to think about pain is as a warning mechanism. Like when a control light on a car starts blinking to tell you that at a certain point in the future you will run out of gas.

Pain is just your body telling you that if you continue with your activity into a certain time in the future, you could cause yourself some damage. That doesn’t mean that your body will break down at that instant.

Your body still has a large hidden reserve left. If you push through the pain, you gain the ability to access this hidden reserve.

This tapping of energy is sometimes called “catching your second wind”. William James described this phenomenon back in 1907 in a classic text of psychology called “The Energies of Man”. James outlined how people usually stop when they hit a point of fatigue, which is the first layer of pain. This fatigue then continues to get worse.

However, beyond that, a person who for some reason is forced to continue until they hit a critical point, discovers something awesome.

In that magical moment, the fatigue passes and the person gets a “second wind”. There you tap a new level of energy, which was masked deep underneath in your subconscious.
James described the experience in this way:

“In exceptional cases we may find, beyond the very extremity of fatigue-distress, amounts of ease and power that we never dreamed ourselves to own, sources of strength habitually not taxed at all, because habitually we never push through the obstruction, never pass those early critical points.”

When you decide to push through the pain, you can access a hidden store of power that you never thought you had. This potential allows you to surpass the limits that your mind had previously thought were impossible to breach.

Techniques to Manage Pain

There are actually some techniques that you can apply to help you handle physical pain. While it is true that the initial pain perception is different for each individual person, almost everyone has the ability change it.

According to one Stanford University study, patients were able to retrain their brain to lessen the pain they felt. In the experiment, the study participants received heat pulses on their legs. The intensity of the pain would vary, but they were to report any pain that they felt was above a 7 on a scale from 0 to 10.

After this, a small group of the volunteers was given a series of brain trainings. Using brain scans, they were able to see the amount of activity going on in their mind. A flame on a screen would flare up and diminish according to the level of the activity.

The remarkable thing is that after only a short period of time, the people in this small group were able to lessen the size of the imaginary flame and hence reduce the real pain that they were feeling. All of this just through the power of their mind!

This type of mind-body connection can even be used in order to perform extraordinary feats of endurance and willpower. The key here, according to another study, is to be in the moment and pay attention to what you are feeling.

Dr. Martin Paulus, who was in charge of the study, highlighted how this simple act can pay great dividends:

“You’re just paying attention to it. And that paying attention has a profound effect on how the brain naturally adjusts itself to down-regulate emotions.”

One way to to train to be in the moment is through mindfulness. This method is exactly what Dr. Paulus prescribed to the Marines that were participating in his study. According to him, “mindfulness can help Marines recover from stress and return to baseline functioning more quickly.”

Another study looked at professional athletes and how they handle pain. It found that two techniques helped them to tolerate it. Namely, association, and disassociation.

With association you are concentrating on the act itself. For example, when I am climbing mountains, one technique that I use is just focusing on putting one leg in front of the other. This is a good way to stay in the moment when you are doing hard activities.

With disassociation, you are instead thinking of something positive to distract you. My version of this technique is that I try to think of the great feeling that I will have once I successfully complete the task.

You don’t need to be a soldier or a professional athlete to benefit from these types of techniques. I am neither, and have managed to successfully apply them in my day to day training (for example when I do hill sprints), or when I undertake challenges like climbing Mt. Blanc.

Just Breathe

Breathing the right way can also have great benefits. Not just in controlling pain, but also in helping you to accomplish great feats. A big proponent of breathing as a way to control the automatic responses of the body is a Dutchman named Wim Hof.

Nicknamed the “Ice Man”, Hof holds several world records in the ability to withstand cold. He claims that this is due to a special breathing technique that he implemented, one that is in many ways similar to the “tummo” breathing technique that is practiced in the high altitudes of Tibet.

Hof has won many adherents to his method. Tom Stijven declared that it helped him get rid of years of chronic pain: “How could a little breathing and cold showers be so much more effective than 6 years of visits to all these ‘experts’?”

There is actually some serious science behind this method. According to one study, the body can be adapted to tolerate extreme cold by creating an artificial stress response.

The authors of the Wayne University study strapped Wim Hof into a magnetic resonance machine, while at the same time exposing him to cold water. What they found is that Hof’s brain started releasing opioids and cannabinoids into the body.

These substances occur naturally and help in modulating your body’s reaction to pain. What the study showed is that this process can be triggered just by the simple process of breathing slowly and deliberately.

This method was also tested in the outdoors. Wim Hof and a group of trekkers who got training in his method were able to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro in 48 hours. None of them got Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS), and 92% of the group were able to complete the climb.

There are different breathing techniques. Each one works better in different situations. Brian MacKenzie, a long-distance running coach, started experimenting with the Wim Hof method in order to improve the performance of his athletes.

What he found is that while Hof’s quick breathing technique was good for sprinting and short bursts, another method was needed in order to improve long-distance performance.

MacKenzie explained how this works: “When we induce nasal breathing, it causes the vasodilation of blood vessels, which increases blood flow to the heart and brain, allowing the body to use oxygen at a better rate.”

A slow nasal breathing technique improves your body’s tolerance of CO2, and in the process also gives you a higher pain threshold. This then allows you to run more and for longer.

Training Means Doing it Again

“When a person trains once, nothing happens. When a person forces himself to do a thing a hundred or a thousand times, then he certainly develops in ways more than physical. Is it raining? That doesn’t matter. Am I tired? That doesn’t matter either. Willpower becomes no longer a problem.” — Emil Zatopek

Tolerance to pain is something that a person can build up over time. Emil Zatopek, a triple Olympic gold medal winner from Czechoslovakia, is widely considered as one of the greatest long-distance runners ever.

At the 1952 Helsinki Summer Olympics, he won the 5,000-meter and 10000-meter long-distance run gold medals. At the last moment, he decided to enter the marathon race as well. Despite never having run such a distance before, he managed to win the gold medal there too.

He was able to do this because of his hard training regime. He wasn’t going for style or technique. In fact, when he was racing, Zatopek always looked like he was about to die. Instead what he was training for was grit.

The running legend was a pioneer of interval training. He would perform a high volume of 5×200m, 20×400m, and 5×200m runs, which were all interspaced with 200m jogs between them.

In this way, he dulled himself to pain. Since he was so used to painful practices, everything else was easy in comparison. He could step it up whenever he wanted to. Zatopek is quoted as saying: “Pain is a merciful thing. If it lasts without interruption, it dulls itself.”

Richard Askwirth, the British journalist who wrote a book about Zatopek titled “Today We Die A Little”, outlined the great runner’s philosophy towards pain:
“Zatopek’s training philosophy wasn’t just about pushing himself hard physically. It was about teaching his mind to shrug off pain and discomfort.”

How I Train to Get Through Pain

My own training philosophy is inspired by these greats. Whenever I am training, doing martial arts, or climbing a mountain, and I feel like giving up, I have a little motivational saying: “What would a special forces soldier or an MMA fighter do in this situation?”

Just by repeating this in my head, I will myself to push on. However, this is just something to get me over the bump. I still put in the work by training before.

During the corona crisis lockdown, I couldn’t go to the gym. Instead, one of the things that I started doing is running outside. There is a series of incline hills close to my house that follow each other. Together, they total 300 meters uphill. They are perfect for practicing hill sprints.

While occasionally having to dodge cars, I have started doing these sprints regularly. The first time I went, I could barely run up one time. I was breathing heavily, and it felt extremely painful.

However, I persisted. Day after day, I kept on running. After a short while, that one hill sprint got easier and easier. So I added two, then three. Despite a two week break because of a calf strain at one point, I am now up to 5 hill sprints.

From all of this, I have learned that the two most painful things are:

* Starting running in the first place and being regular about it.

* Starting that first sprint each day.

When I started, I hurt real bad. Yet, I kept on pushing. The amount of pain I now feel when doing the hill sprints is much less. This despite the fact that I do more of them.

Also on my running days, the first hill sprint is usually the worst. However, when I power through the pain of that one, all the rest of them get easier. This is my secret. I found out that by powering through initial bouts of pain and fatigue, things get easier in the long-run.

You just have to have the willpower to do it. The thing is, I wasn’t born with this mindset. I was a quitter and used to quit at the first inkling of pain. However, at one point I said enough is enough and decided not to be a quitter anymore.

The greats don’t quit when the going gets tough. Even when feeling pain, their mind wills them through. That is the main takeaway that you should remember: It’s all in your mind.

This story was originally published on “Medium” here.

Credit: 1

Unfortunately I grew up and no part of that dream came true. No karate tournaments, no wild motorbike chases, no awesome death touch. Well, now I will make at least a small part of that dream a reality.

Yes, at times I did train and tae kwon do and did get some colored belts, but at no time was I serious. Now I will change that.

I booked a flight to Thailand for a month and will do intensive training at one of the muay thai camps in the country. I am a complete beginner in the fighting art, but hopefully after a month of intense effort, I will learn at least the basics.

I was planning to do this for a long time now, but kept postponing it. I am not getting younger though and so finally I said “fuck it” and booked the trip.

How do I get the money and time off to do this?

Well, as I wrote previously, due to my hard work and some creative skills (which can be replicated by you), I managed to get a job where I am the decision maker and make decent money.

I also work in Europe and so have plenty of vacation time to do this, plus time I carried over from previous years.

What will I do?

Well the plan is to train muay thai, but the camp also offers classes in BJJ and some related martial arts, so I might try those as well. I will also try to improve my fitness, strength and stamina.

Since I will be in the country for 31 days and can get a visa-free entry for only 30 days, at some point I will also need to make a visa run to Malaysia to get my entry visa extended. So some travelling will be a part of the experience.

I will keep you updated on the blog once I go (latter part of August and beginning of September).

Read More:
This will add a new chapter to my life:
Your own hero’s journey: how to grow as a person

—
Credit: 1

There are moments when I get philosophical and try to contemplate why things are the way they are and why I do the things that I do. One fact of life is that you can never redo things, you can never go back in time. Time doesn’t stop, but keeps on going. A moment comes and then it goes, to be replaced by another moment. All we get left with is memories and even those sometimes fade. The moment is now, yet that too will soon be just a memory.

In my mind I often go back to things that have happened. At one point that was also “now”, the “moment”, with no way of knowing what the future will bring. I was running, thinking, eating, reading or doing a myriad of other activities. I had hopes and dreams and had no idea what will happen in the future. That was the moment, and then it was gone, to be replaced by another moment. Looking back at it, I now know that many of my hopes and dreams did not come true. Yet that does not stop me from living in the moment and creating new hopes and dreams, reflecting the current reality. I can only hope that those will turn out differently.

Life is about learning and trying to grab opportunities as they come. Unfortunately, many times things do not turn out as you want them to turn out. That’s why you need something to keep you focused, to keep you balanced. You need to strive and work on yourself. You cannot control outside forces, but what you can do is try to work on yourself, always striving to improve yourself, whether physically or intellectually. Training, lifting, doing sports, is one of those things that gives me balance, keeps me focused and helps me strive to achieve goals. It is an opportunity that I get to better myself.

1) You can never be perfect, but why not try?

Unfortunately you can never be perfect. Perfection does not exist. There is always at least a small flaw that disturbs the balance. Yet that does not prevent one from trying to be perfect. Sometimes life gives you a bad hand and you have it harder than the guy who got “lucky” and got the genetics, got the money…etc. without having to work for them. That is unfortunate, yet even he is not perfect. In the game of life you should only race against yourself, because that is what counts.

I don’t understand the philosophy “be proud of the way you are”, at least in the way that it is often applied. Often that means, if you’re fat, then be proud of being fat. I think that type of philosophy just creates complacency. Except for a very small percentage of people who are fat because of medical reasons, the vast majority of people are fat, because they chose to be fat. Yet they do nothing about it and continue the bad habits that led them to their current state. You should not create excuses for yourself, but instead try to change it. Numerous people have done it, why not you? It does take hard work, but the final result will be worth it. Unfortunately most people take the easy path and do nothing.

In my head, I have a perfect image of myself, the state that I want to be in, and do everything that I can in order to achieve it. There are setbacks and unfortunately life throws you curveballs, for example injuries, which kill your progress. All you can do is ride it out and start over. Create that perfect image of yourself and set up goals on how to achieve that. Then go out and try your hardest to do that. You might fail, yet there is no shame in failing. We can never be perfect. The shame is in not trying.

2) Life is about challenging yourself

Progress only happens when you attempt to do something that you haven’t done and sometimes it works. That’s why you should always be challenging yourself and doing new things. You never know whether you can do something, unless you actually do it and put effort into doing it. You need to set up a goal and try to achieve it. Challenge yourself!

I never understood the typical “sports fan”, the guy with the pot belly and the beer in hand watching sports. When the team he is cheering for wins, he yells: “We won!” and feels some sort of satisfaction as if he achieved something and tries to show off the guys that cheered for the other team. Newsflash, but you did not win. The guys on the field won. You didn’t. All you did was sit in front of the television, drink beer and watch a bunch of guys run around the field. There is no challenge in that and there should be no sense of achievement. For me personally I don’t like to watch sports, I prefer to do them. When I watch something on the screen, I get the itch to be on the field, to actually be doing it.

Is there something that you want to do, but haven’t done. Then do it! Set up goals and try to achieve them. They might seem impossible to achieve, but therein lies the challenge. If you work hard you can achieve the things that you previously thought impossible. You just shouldn’t give up and when you fail, just try again! I set up challenges in the gym and try to achieve them.

3) You sometimes need to detach from everyday life

Unfortunately, a lot of things that happen in life are BS. I am sure you have been in BS types of situations before. You might sit at work every day for long hours, doing things that you do not particularly enjoy doing or ones that you feel are pointless. You might find yourself in situations where you have pointless arguments with colleagues over totally useless stuff. You might even have colleagues that make life a living hell for you.

That’s why you need a little sanctuary where you can go and detach yourself from the stress and other BS of everyday life. The gym is my way of doing that. You should forget about everything that is happening outside of the gym and focus on what you are doing in the gym. For that moment, life outside the gym does not exist. You are in there and control your own situation. You set your own goals and you are working on achieving them. It’s only you and no distractions.

4) Being strong lets you do things that you wouldn’t be able to do otherwise

Training also gives you other benefits, for example physical. You have the strength or stamina to do things that others can’t. When you are a big buff dude, you get respect from other guys and they are less likely to pick on you. You can defend yourself and others. You can pick up heavy things or go long distances. You are also a lot more healthy than other people.

5) It gives you a sense of achievement and a good feeling

These are the fruits of your efforts, your real life achievements and they are pretty useful. You get a sense of pride when you achieve something that you set out to achieve. You look back at all the hard work it took, but that moment is worth it. Your mind feels elated and your body feels light and powerful. There is nothing that beats that feeling.

6) It’s fun

Besides training is fun! We all like to do things that are “fun” and for me training and doing sports is fun. There is the sense of competition, there is the sense of achievement and all those things translate to fun.

These are some of the reasons of why I train! What are yours?

Image above: Image courtesy of Victor Habbick / FreeDigitalPhotos.net