Blog

Let's End The "No Pain, No Gain" Mentality

I'm inspired to write this post because I've worked with many fitness-minded clients who ultimately want to be fit and healthy, but have absorbed a "no pain, no gain" mentality due to messaging from the fitness industry and end up hurting themselves. This is due to "norms" that have been deemed socially acceptable to believe. And I'd like to challenge them. 

I want to reiterate that I, too, have been guilty of falling into all of these beliefs, which is why I want to shed light on them. I don't think it's productive to "shame" people or organizations who do believe these things, but I want to share what I have learned throughout my fitness and physical therapy experiences.

So let's get to it and shed some light on these seven harmful beliefs the exercise industry has sold us on:

#1: You have to do cardio to be thin or lose fat 

This derives from the message that you need to torch hundreds of...