No Pain, No Gain?

Article 1: No Pain, No Gain Philosphy

Living in modern society, exercise is an essential element to healthy lifestyle as people are now more concern about getting fit. However, each individual has his/her own way to exercise. Especially for teenagers, they are very easily influenced by the information that they perceive every day. There are mass of varieties of inaccurate information on internet which may mislead the teens to exercise in ways that are unsuitable for them.

I believe most people have heard of the “No pain, no gain” philosophy. I think this philosophy is not plausible. Looking at the website provided below, let’s point out how teenagers can easily believe in these ridiculously doubtful information. Firstly, the website writes in strong bias and persuasion. In the first few paragraphs, it attacks the reader’s self-esteem and criticizes that people are weak and they are not doing the exercises “right”. Secondly, it manipulates pictures of muscular models as a support of what they are trying to point out. There is absolutely no evidence of how these people get so bulky. Thirdly, throughout the website, it has not mention a word about the risk factors of overworking yourself. The website even brings out a message saying that if we do not push our bodies to the limits then we will not build any muscle. This could cause teenagers to injure themselves by exhausting their bodies. Furthermore, the website talks a little about diet, “But all this is no good without a well-balanced diet… you got to eat like the big guys;” it doesn’t provide any guidelines saying that big guys are healthy eaters. Lastly, the website encourages people to blindly follow the “no pain, no gain” philosophy without taking into account people’s initial exercise status. Teenagers may feel pressured and stressed out if they think they are useless because they cannot get the perfect body sizes they want.

Many teenagers who follow the “no pain, no pain” motto injure themselves easily because they think if they don’t experience pain, they are not doing enough exercise. One of the facts for muscle building reported by Harley Pasternak, a celebrity trainer on NBC TV, is that as long as there are some discomforts occur in one’s muscle, it is a sign of muscle building, many of which don’t require pain. In addition, he also mentions about time and intensity of exercising should be adjusted accordingly. Also, an article written by Marlene Habib, a fitness instructor and writer at CBCNews, talks about how easy exercising can be. One of her successful examples is when she sets some simple exercises for an old man to keep fit. Those exercises are just walking 15 minutes two or three times a week, stretching, and easy weight lifting. Therefore, the most important thing in exercising would be “knowing your limits and playing within it”. There are also health classes and physical education classes in school that provide teenagers with more accurate and detail information.

Websites that are credible:

Exercise newbies: Have no fear

Video: No Pain, No Gain and other workout myths