Running sometimes gets portrayed as a type of masochism. You’ve watched videos of runners pushing their limits. You’ve seen the slogans like: “Pain is weakness leaving your body.” Often people who struggle to run say: “It just hurts!”
It shouldn’t hurt anyone to go out and run at a gentle pace. Sadly, many of our people have a pre-existing health condition. It's called being dreadfully unfit. Living a chair-based existence and eating too much. Drinking caffeine to wake up and alcohol to wind down.
It shouldn’t hurt anyone to go out and run at a gentle pace. Sadly, many of our people have a pre-existing health condition. It's called being dreadfully unfit. Living a chair-based existence and eating too much. Drinking caffeine to wake up and alcohol to wind down.
These semi-crippled bodies have lost most of their natural strength and agility. That is true suffering, it’s just spread out through the day so you might not notice it. It’s the ache when you get out of bed in the morning. It’s your back complaining when you go to pick something up. It’s the inability to play sports with your children.
That’s one of the reasons it might hurt to run. It’s not that running ‘doesn’t suit you’. It’s that a perfectly natural physical movement has become difficult for you through chronic ill health. We only accept that in our society because we have made it possible to get by in life while extremely unwell. In other societies being unable to perform normal physical activities would be a cause for serious concern among family and friends.
The good news is that no matter how unfit you are starting out, you needn’t suffer to run. Build your programme up gradually. Practise good running form. Cross-train and stretch. With the right approach you can enjoy every step.
That said, you could say that some discomfort is often part of the running experience. But physical sensation is not suffering. Suffering occurs when we tell ourselves the physical sensation shouldn’t be happening.
This is true for everything. If you feel tired or sore, you only suffer if you tell yourself you shouldn’t be, or do not wish to be. You have probably already experienced times when you have been tired and sore, but intensely happy. It usually happens when you have achieved something special and are satisfied with the result. The difference between how you felt then and how you can feel anytime you are tired and sore is mental. It's not physical.
This even applies to injuries. You can have an injury without suffering from it. That’s why I tend to refer to them as ‘physical challenges’, or 'sub-optimal expressions of health'. They are essentially signals that you need to do things differently. Suffering only occurs when you fail to accept that or are impatient for the process to be over. The less of this kind of suffering you indulge in the easier it will be to overcome the challenges.
So running needn't ever be suffering. If you choose to make yourself suffer then that’s up to you.
That’s one of the reasons it might hurt to run. It’s not that running ‘doesn’t suit you’. It’s that a perfectly natural physical movement has become difficult for you through chronic ill health. We only accept that in our society because we have made it possible to get by in life while extremely unwell. In other societies being unable to perform normal physical activities would be a cause for serious concern among family and friends.
The good news is that no matter how unfit you are starting out, you needn’t suffer to run. Build your programme up gradually. Practise good running form. Cross-train and stretch. With the right approach you can enjoy every step.
That said, you could say that some discomfort is often part of the running experience. But physical sensation is not suffering. Suffering occurs when we tell ourselves the physical sensation shouldn’t be happening.
This is true for everything. If you feel tired or sore, you only suffer if you tell yourself you shouldn’t be, or do not wish to be. You have probably already experienced times when you have been tired and sore, but intensely happy. It usually happens when you have achieved something special and are satisfied with the result. The difference between how you felt then and how you can feel anytime you are tired and sore is mental. It's not physical.
This even applies to injuries. You can have an injury without suffering from it. That’s why I tend to refer to them as ‘physical challenges’, or 'sub-optimal expressions of health'. They are essentially signals that you need to do things differently. Suffering only occurs when you fail to accept that or are impatient for the process to be over. The less of this kind of suffering you indulge in the easier it will be to overcome the challenges.
So running needn't ever be suffering. If you choose to make yourself suffer then that’s up to you.
