AID STATION: Your body won’t always agree with your exercise plan. Your mind is an incredibly powerful machine. It is fully capable of telling (not asking) your body how to respond. But, there will be days when your body will fight against you. I’m not endorsing reckless activity, but I am saying there’s a difference between pain and injury. You must learn to push through pain by redirecting focus away from your body back to your mind.

Can I make a confession please? My workouts this morning were harder than I can ever remember. I woke up with a terrible stomach ache which killed my motivation. After 10 minutes of tossing and turning, my feet finally hit the floor. For the record, I’m a morning exerciser but this morning I just wan’t feeling it. I continued through my motions just like any other day. Today my exercise plan called for a cross train so I headed to the gym. My stomach was still killing me, but I continued on. It wasn’t until I broke my first sweat, that I was able to redirect my focus. Up to this point in the morning all I could think about was my stomach ache. Rather than succumbing to the pain, I pushed and went on about the task at hand.

I wish I could tell you this story has a happy ending. If you perceive a completed workout to be a happy ending, then I guess it was. My point is that sometimes your workouts are going to hurt. Resist the urge to cave and simply put yourself in the position to overcome.