Most people are at least mildly familiar with a saying like these: "Nothing good comes easy." "Beautiful things are born from dirt." "A smooth sea never made a strong sailor." As we get older, we do unfortunately realize that in most aspects of our lives, this tends to be true; we learn through adversities of different kinds, we grow through learning to confront uncomfortable situations, and it's often a rite-of-passage to "growing up" and moving forward towards something better.
In the context of succeeding in a fitness goal, whether that goal is strength-based or endurance-based, a "necessary evil" is a certain level of discomfort and struggle. Lasting, sustainable change of any kind demand them, actually. The discomfort comes from picking up a new habit and maybe shedding some old ones that don't serve the person you're trying to become, whereas the struggle is something we actually chase consistently in terms of "overall fitness". For an aspiring endurance runner, when a 5K becomes easy or routine, it's time to push beyond that limit and find the next "struggle spot" to overcome. For a strength focused athlete (and folks looking to improve body composition), when a ninety-five pound deadlift becomes easy to do for 10 reps, it's time to increase repetitions or weight until a new "struggle spot" is met. These "spots" are progress markers for increasing and maintaining strength or endurance.
Struggle can look different from day to day and isn't always linear, thus it can be easy to get down on ourselves for "struggling more with this now than I did before," which is totally normal, fine, and expected (we are human, after-all!) The thing that matters is allowing yourself to find that place of struggle; struggle requires effort to be present. So, the moral of the story: we need struggle. It keeps us moving forward. It takes no effort to coast!
Thank you for reading and I hope this little post reminds you to pat yourself on the back the next time you find yourself struggling (purposefully or not): you're trying!
Margo
