Is it Possible to Enjoy Hard Exercise?

If you dread exercise, chances are you have a tough time convincing yourself to do it. That’s why I always recommend that beginners start with activities they enjoy to develop a positive relationship with exercise. Typically, this involves low-to-moderate intensity exercises like walking, yoga, and dancing, or endurance cardio like jogging, cycling, and sports.

I recommend this approach because it gets your body used to exercise and the feel-good chemicals that come with it. It enables you to lose those first few pounds and start embracing exercise as a lifelong part of your daily routine.

But what about when it’s time to transition to strenuous, muscle-building exercises, like lifting and strength training? Can anyone genuinely learn to enjoy a workout that makes you feel like you’re about to see your life flash before your eyes?

Believe it or not, strenuous exercise can be enjoyable. But like blue cheese, olives, or pickled onions, it’s something of an acquired taste.

I know this because I went from being someone who only used dumbbells as doorstops to someone who genuinely looks forward to feeling the burn.

But I didn’t get there overnight.

Wait — Do You Really Need Strength Training?

You might be wondering if strength training is even necessary if you don’t enjoy it.

I would argue that yes, it is.

Even if you don’t care about body composition, strength training is crucial to your overall health and longevity. It prevents age-related muscle loss, builds stronger bones, improves balance, and increases range of motion.

And if your ultimate fitness goal is to get lean and toned, you aren’t likely to get there through low-intensity exercise and cardio alone.

Why? Because while those exercises are great for burning calories and improving heart health, they’re not practical for building muscle mass.

Building muscle changes your body composition, and you can only build a significant amount of muscle through strength training.

But this kind of exercise requires an enormous amount of effort. It causes your muscles to burn and shake. And thanks to DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness), you’re likely to feel sore and stiff for days after your first workout.

In short, strength training is difficult, and we humans tend to have an aversion to doing hard things.

Fortunately, you can learn to embrace hard exercise — and even like it — by practicing a few mindset shifts.

Understand that Hard Exercise is a Skill You Can Improve

A few years ago, I picked up a pair of knitting needles for the first time because I wanted to make myself a chunky-knit scarf I came across on Pinterest.

I thought learning to knit would be easy, but it took me days just to learn how to cast my yarn onto the needles correctly. It took me another three weeks to figure out how to knit anything that didn’t end up a tangled ball of failure.

It was frustrating, but I kept trying because I couldn’t drop the vision I had of that chunky scarf.

And eventually, I finished the dang scarf.

But something else happened: I got pretty decent at knitting and even looked forward to doing it.

I find strenuous exercise is very similar to knitting in this way. After my first high-intensity workout, I thought, “This is way too hard. Screw this!”

I felt like I would never be able to do it, and the urge to give up was intense, especially because it was so physically taxing.

But after sticking it out for a few weeks, I was blown away by how quickly my body adapted. And the better I got at it, the more I started to like it.

How to get there

For the first month, do at least three challenging, 20-minute strength sessions per week. You don’t have to be perfect; just do the best you can.

Track your progress after each session by jotting down the reps and time to complete each set. At the month’s end, compare the last session with your first; you won’t believe how quickly you’ve improved!

The more you keep at it, the better you get. And when you get good at something, you start to enjoy it.

Acquire a Taste for the Burn

“No pain, no gain” has been the popular refrain of trainers worldwide regarding strenuous exercise. I’m not a fan of this expression because it frames exercise as a negative experience.

Yet, I can’t deny that hard workouts are more than a little uncomfortable — especially those last few sets towards the end of the session.

But the deep burn that makes you want to cry and call for your mother is where all the magic happens. It’s the reason why you will wake up one day with a robust and healthy body.

And when you start seeing — and feeling — those changes, you begin to look forward to the burn. Even though it still hurts, you associate that sensation with progress and gains.

I also find that really digging into those hard moments makes you feel alive. It’s a little like people who enjoy horror movies or thrillers. The feelings themselves are not positive, but in the right context, they can be exhilarating.

How to get there

It’s all about making that connection between the burn and your gains. When your muscles feel like they’re about to burst into flames, lean into the moment and think about the positive changes this sensation will bring.

Over time, you will start forming a positive connection between that discomfort and your progress.

Get Hooked on Overcoming Challenge

My favorite thing about strenuous exercise is that you’re constantly in competition with yourself.

There’s always another exercise to master, another rep to reach, or another PR to break. As you get better at strength training, you start to look forward to overcoming each new challenge in your workout.

For example, the first time I could complete ten full military pushups, I felt like throwing a party. And I was so excited when I managed my first pistol squat that I posted about it on Instagram like a total nerd.

Overcoming a challenge in a workout makes you feel powerful. Better still, that feeling carries over into the rest of your life. You start to realize that you have no idea what the limits of your potential are, and that’s intoxicating.

How to get there

Give yourself a performance-based goal (or several) to work towards, whether that’s mastering your first full pushup or doing 50 squats without breaking a sweat.

When you reach that goal, celebrate! Share it on social media, reward yourself with a hot bath, or journal about your victory.

Then set the next goal.

Bask in the Post-Exercise Glow

I would argue that one of the most blissful feelings in the world is crushing a challenging workout. Even though I’m sweaty and my legs are shaking, knowing that I showed up and did something so life-enhancing leaves me feeling motivated and powerful.

If I’m having an off day and start thinking about blowing off my workout, I will ask myself how I will feel after training versus how I will feel if I skip it.

I usually regret missing a workout. In contrast, I always feel like a boss when I get it done.

It’s enough to drop any ideas I have of shirking my workout and chase that high instead.

How to get there

Every time your finish a workout, celebrate yourself for showing up and doing something healthy for your body.

Even if it was a tough workout that kicked your butt, tell yourself you survived it, and it’s making you stronger. Then the next time you feel like bailing on a workout, draw on that post-exercise feeling to motivate you.

Final Thoughts

Doing the hard things is what reaps the greatest rewards in life. Exercise is no different; all of it is good, but it’s the hard workouts that facilitate the most change and help you live your best-quality life.

But just because it’s hard doesn’t mean you can’t learn to love it. It boils down to how you choose to think about your workouts.

If you view it as torture, it will always be a negative experience. If you lean into the challenge and embrace it as a conduit for exploring your potential and living your best life, you can acquire a taste for it in time.

Let strength training be your blue cheese. Give it a chance, stick with it, and you’ll be surprised at how quickly you’ll grow to love it.

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Originally published in In Fitness And In Health on Medium