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Why ‘No Pain, No Gain’ Is Bad Advice (And What To Do Instead)

Gabe Johansson
2 min readMar 18, 2023

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Back when I first got into lifting weights and dieting, I thought the only way to get real results was to go all in.

Daily cardio, tons of lifting, and eating the same strict meals every day was the way to go, and anything else just wouldn’t work for losing fat and getting in shape.

That couldn’t be further from the truth, and I’m glad I was able to learn what I know now.

‘No pain, no gain’ is simply bad advice, but it makes sense why people might think it’s the key to fitness.

It’s true that most people don’t put in enough effort when it comes to the gym, so it’s no wonder why that message got spread everywhere.

And it’s catchy too.

But here’s the thing:

You don’t have to actually feel pain from working out to get results.

In fact, too many gym-goers will feel that pain and soreness from lifting, hate it, and stop showing up until their next year resolutions come back around.

I saw this kind of thing happen all the time when I worked at a gym for over 3 years.

Instead of saying ‘no pain, no gain’ all you gotta do is push yourself a little bit more than you did last time.

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Gabe Johansson
Gabe Johansson

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