"Crashing through the Pain Barrier." Phrases like that make me fighting mad! Instead of exhorting people to eager anticipation of great workouts and fun in the gym, sensationalism is used to distort and create negative attitudes toward training. This is especially the case with beginning bodybuilders, because they are the ones who are most influenced by what they read in the magazines.
There is no pain in bodybuilding! Yes, there is ache and pump and soreness, but these are all good and positive.
At times a bodybuilder works to near exhaustion just to get that right feeling in a muscle. Does he want it to hurt? Of course not. He wants it to feel good. James Joseph was the most popular member of my gym because he had the most wonderfully positive attitude towards training of anyone in the gym. He would call out to anyone in his area doing a set to "Make it feel good". He might add any number of phrases to it such as "C'mon push it, push it", or "More, more, more" but they were always followed by "Make it feel good". He captured the true essence of a workout. A workout is supposed to "feel good."
Arnold once compared the pump sensation to having an orgasm. He too, was right on target. The sensations of an orgasm are one of our most pleasurable experiences; but let's examine what happens. There is an electrical impulse so strong as to convulse the entire muscular system. The mind temporarily blanks, yet we love it. If an electrical shock apparatus were applied to the genitals with enough voltage to reproduce the same symptoms or reactions it would be unbearable. So what determines whether it is pleasure or pain is our predetermined attitude.
At one of the major universities student volunteers were given mild to moderate electrical shocks. One group was told the shocks would have beneficial effects such as increased circulation, hair growth, muscle toning, etc. The other group was told the shocks would have no beneficial effects but would not be harmful. The group who were convinced of the beneficial effects of the shocks reported significantly less pain than the group who were volunteering for the sake of research.
Take the example of the child getting his first haircut. He has been warned all his life against getting cut or cutting himself; and the cuts he has experienced have been quite painful. Now he is told he is going to get his hair cut. He is placed in a chair, usually with some force, tied up, a stranger advances towards him with a pair of scissors which the child has been continually warned against. No wonder he is screaming bloody murder. So you can see it is strictly a matter of mind conditioning. And so it is with bodybuilding. The feeling we work so hard to get is not pain
So many times in the last 50 years have bodybuilders come to me with the desperate plea of "Jim, I'm just not getting a pump. It doesn't feel like I've worked it." Together we have worked out their problem so that they too have that immensely pleasurable ache that says, "I'm growing".
Let's get rid of this negativism of "Pain Barriers". There should be no such thing in bodybuilding as a pain barrier. Anything so fervently desired and ardently worked for, once achieved, is ultimately pleasurable.
It is your attitude towards yourself, your training, your next set which will determine your results. It should be neither a barrier or painful. But it is ecstasy, and it is oh so sweet.