Never Give Up, Never Give In

I never know how to start out a post, so typically I will say something like "Happy (insert the day of the week that it is here)!" Yeah. That's getting pretty lame. I need to step up my game here!

I feel like most of my posts lately have been some sort of review or whatnot. Not today! I really enjoy typing up posts regarding something about strength training or something else along the lines of that. Today will be one of those posts.

Well, what's the fancy subject I'll be touching on? Not giving up. Oh gosh, that sounds so cliche. "Never give up!" I am not going to lie, whenever I hear that, I get the sudden urge to roll my eyes. Everything is much easier said than done. Ain't that the truth!

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I am not always directly affected my quotes. The quote "Never give up!" doesn't hit me hard. Sorry I'm not sorry. I can tell myself to never give up. Or I could just not give up with my actions, not my words.

When I first started strength training, I really loved doing legs. I would squat, lunge and deadlift until my legs were literally numb. I enjoyed it. But ever since I have pretty much doubled all the weight in my lifts, doing legs has seemingly become much more of a chore than something I enjoy.

A lot of you could argue that I could just simply not do legs at all. I mean, I'm only a teenager and shouldn't really worry about it, right? Why waste time on something I don't like to do at such a young age? Well, my answer is simply that I HATE doing legs when I'm actually doing it. The feeling I get after I have completed a very difficult leg workout is incredible. I feel like I could Hulk smash a concrete wall.

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I could just quit when I feel immense pain building up in my legs. "Psh, four sets of squats? I've already done two and I'm really tired and my legs really hurt. I'm done now." <-- Uhm, if you know me, you will NEVER hear me say this. EVER. 

Case in point: yesterday I did a pretty intense plyometric/high rep leg workout with my trainer for something different, as I have been doing heavy legs for quite some time now.

While doing my normal box jumps, I totally slipped and ate metal like no other:

It hurt so bad. I didn't really tell my trainer how bad it hurt, because I wanted to keep going. I didn't want to stop because wittle Brittany gots a wittle booboo. However, this accident bruised my bone so very badly. At this very moment, two days later, my leg is still throbbing and it hurts to walk slightly. I kept going after that box jump though. I finished the reps and the other sets. I pounded through it.

Then I went to go do some lunges. I have been getting accustomed to heavy lunges, however I was doing a high rep workout and this required three sets of 20 reps per leg on lunges. Ugh. Not a fan. Nope. Not at all.

During that entire time, I just wanted to quit. Every time I lunged forward this was literally echoing in my head: "&#^$@(&!$^ I JUST WANT TO GO HOME AND STUFF MY FACE." After the second set, I almost quit. Yes, me, Miss I Have To Do Everything Perfectly, almost quit. NEVER.

I told myself that I had ONE set left. It would take maybe 5 minutes, if that. I had time to carve out a measly five minutes from my life. Sure it hurt NOW, but it won't hurt to look in the mirror when I have monster quads, now will it? ;)

My calves burned. My quads ached. My hamstrings felt like they were hit with a sledgehammer. Yet I persisted. I finished that last set, ran (more like limped) straight to my little locker, chugged my protein shake, and fled to my car to go to my sanctuary of a home. I am going to take it easy on the leg workouts until my ankle properly heals. I foresee a lot of icing in my future!

The moral of the story is simply to JUST. DO. IT. Stop making excuses, stop reminding yourself of the pain you are in, stop being pessimistic and dreading the workout. Think of the benefits. Most of the time, if you really hate it THAT much and it really hurts THAT bad, THOSE are the reps that count. THOSE are the reps that are going to initiate a response in your body to build muscle. Cherish them. You hate those reps now but you will love them later.

Never give up? *rolls eyes* Stop saying that, and just act upon it!

Questions: Do you keep going even if every muscle in your body is sore? How do you get the motivation to persist?

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