Push Yourself or Listen to Your Body

deannaxsmithx

do you follow the phrase "push yourself" or "listen to your body" when working out?
"push yourself " in this case meaning when you're exhausted, your muscles & joints start to hurt, you tell yourself to keep continuing with your workout until it's finished
"listen to your body " meaning when you're exhausted, your muscles & joints start to hurt, you fear injury or do not wish to continue, so you pause or otherwise finish your workout early.

LolBroScience

Both... depends how badly I'm beat up and the type of pain or exhaustion. I'm fairly good at reading my body and knowing my limits.

nuttyengineer

Both. I usually go until I'm totally exhausted and then try to go until I can't anymore without actually risking injury. It can be kind of tricky to reach that balance, though.

cheshirecatastrophe

"Push yourself." And every time I get hurt, I vow that next time I'll listen to my body. And I never do.

(Currently going on 5 weeks zero running. )

NaurielR

I try to push myself while still listening to my body, but I think that my definition of "push yourself" is different than yours.

If I fear injury, I back off. I've injured myself before and it's just not worth it. But just about every time I work out I want to quit before I've finished my routine. My mind will tell me that my arms are too tired, or that I my legs are too weak to do those last two reps. That's where I "push myself"; I overcome my mind telling me to quit when I know my body can do more.

So long story short; unless I feel I'm risking injury, I push myself until my routine is done.

futuremanda

Both. I try not to listen to my body whining that things are uncomfortable or that I'm tired. But I often skip or modify or substitute for things I'm not sure I'm up for yet, or if I detect a "warning" signal. (I don't think I would end early unless I did hurt myself. I feel like it's not all or nothing, I can make changes in order to get through the whole thing.)

Buuut if your joints are hurting, you might want to pay attention to that. Or get some good advice, either on your form (which might be causing it) or your joints specifically. Pain, warning signs, genuine fear of injury, fatigue to the point of sacrificing form, I'd pay attention to. Soreness, burning, tiredness, whining, general discomfort (hunger, overly warm, etc), simply wanting to not be doing it anymore, no.

foursirius

I push myself. However, that's a big difference than injure myself as well.

JoRocka

Why must it be one of the other?

<says the angry person having a crappy lift so the solution to add more weight foe the final lift>

Answer.
Both.

You won't get very far if you are always working in a 'safe' easy place. Being said you don't want to push so hard you injury yourself

But growth is uncomfortable.

ndj1979

both …

I always want the weight on the bar to be the maximum that I can do for the prescribed reps..

however, if I am feeling beat up or think I may have an inure then I back off…

esjones12

Those are extremely relative terms. One person's "push" may not be the same as another person's "push".

Generally if you are looking to grow and get faster/stronger you are going to have to push past your body's limits, which will be uncomfortable (aka painful). Again, painful vs uncomfortable is relative to that person's perception.

There IS a line that can be crossed. Obviously there is injury in the short term. However, there is also long term. Yesterday I was loosely diagnosed by process of elimination with OTS (overtraining syndrome). Google it. You can do a lot of damage to your body by pushing past its limits for a long period of time. There are a lot of subtle signs that you can attribute to other causes.

Willbenchforcupcakes

JoRocka wrote: »

Why must it be one of the other?

<says the angry person having a crappy lift so the solution to add more weight foe the final lift>

Answer.
Both.

You won't get very far if you are always working in a 'safe' easy place. Being said you don't want to push so hard you injury yourself

But growth is uncomfortable.

This. Respect my body but push my limits.

gle8442

I listen to my body, and that means learning when it's OK to push myself and when I need to stop. Certain kinds of aches and pains I know from experience I have to push past: the ones that migrate around my body from workout to workout, or the kind of soreness that I sometimes feel when I'm starting out but that disappears after a few minutes. Pain that is localized and not normal for me, or that is really sharp and feels "wrong"... for that I stop.

dbmata

Push yourself OR listen to your body?

How is it one or the other? Aren't we smart enough to do both?

You should do both.

tomatoey

My default setting is "push myself", and I have to make myself listen to my body.

It's not that I'm particularly athletic or competitive (with anyone other than myself), & I'm certainly not accomplished. I just like to work hard, and strongly respond to clear goals (like time or weight or whatever). Pretty much nothing in life is as clear-cut or immediately rewarding as a workout. (Maybe math problems or something like that, but I haven't had anything to do with those in years, thankfully.)