Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable

“Get comfortable being uncomfortable” is one of those catchy, turn-on-itself phrases that speaks volumes to a lot of people with a minimum of words.  Sort of like, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”  Get comfortable being uncomfortable was probably first uttered by some Navy SEAL drill instructor to some SEAL recruits that were entering their third hour in 50 degree ocean water.  I’m sure he called them maggots at some point too.

I can safely say I would not enjoy this.  Source: MSNBC

I had thought I was possibly to first to bring it to the strength and conditioning world while working with a client this past year.  But when I was reading through Zach Even-Esh’s blog a few months later I came across a few articles on the exact same subject, the first of which I think had been written in early 2010.  No matter.  Here is my take on the issue and how I came to discover this guiding principle.

As strength and conditioning coaches we all know not every client “gets it.”  That is, they don’t understand that in order to achieve any of the goals that they have set out for themselves they are going to have to work.  And get sweaty.  And sore.  And dirty.  It’s a simple fact of life in the strength world and goes back to the old saying, “To get something you don’t have you have to do something you haven’t done.”  And for many people that means pushing themselves beyond what they thought themselves capable.  It means being OK with your heart rate at or above its hypothetical maximum.  It means being OK with having fire in your lungs from Prowler sprints.  It means inwardly being afraid to get underneath a bar and squat it but outwardly displaying confidence and a steel reserve.  And it means getting under said bar and lifting the weight you previously thought yourself incapable of lifting.

Mark was a client that was not OK with any of those things.  He had some pretty lofty goals and it was going to take an extraordinary amount of work just to get him in the ball park of where he wanted to be.  He was totally detrained and had never played competitive sports in his life.  He would get winded and asked for water breaks DURING THE WARMUP.  He refused to take less than two minute rest periods in between all sets of lifts.  Movement work consisted mostly of him needing a minute to catch his breath.  He would consistently miss training sessions all together.  He even signed up with our nutritionist but wouldn’t eat what she had laid out for him.  Many times we sat him down and spelled out for him exactly what he needed to fix in regards to his attitude and effort and he just couldn’t or wouldn’t change.  And then, to boot, he would trash the training and eating principles that he refused to follow as the reason he wasn’t getting better.  But that’s not the point of the article.  The point is that he was starting from absolutely zero.  The bar for improvement was incredibly low.  The bar for where he wanted to be was miles above it.

Many times when we would be working together he’d ask questions like, “Do you think I can do it (achieve the goals he had in mind)?” or “Do you think it’s my cardio that’s lacking?”  I would respond to the first by saying, “I’ll never say something is impossible but unless you turn it around, it is going to be very improbable.”  It was the second question where I stumbled upon the concept of Getting Comfortable Being Uncomfortable.  In fact, those were essentially my exact words to him.

I could see plain as day what was continuously happening.  Mark would go through his sessions and as soon as his heart rate rose and his breathing became a bit more labored and he could feel the burn in his muscles he shut down.  He thought that he had approached his limits and no amount of encouragement would get him to push further.  I stopped the session and said to him, “Mark, it’s not your cardio that’s the problem.  It’s your effort.  The reason your cardio and work capacity suck is because you refuse to push yourself beyond your current limits.  You have no concept of what it is to work hard for something.  And unless you start listening to us when we tell you to do something you never will.  You have to GET COMFORTABLE BEING UNCOMFORTABLE.  I promise you only good things will happen when you push past your limits.”

Mark didn’t turn it around.  Even though it’s frustrating to put effort into someone only to have them not take advantage of it there are still things to be learned.  On top of the concept of getting comfortable being uncomfortable I also realized that many aspects of physical fitness are simple concepts to grasp.  You want to get stronger?  Lift heavier.  Gain or lose weight?  Clean up your diet and then eat amounts that jive with your goals.  All are simple in theory but not easy in practice.  And it comes down to comfort.  

Are you comfortable lifting beyond your current strength levels?  

Are you comfortable being hungry for some parts of the day to lose body fat?  

Are you comfortable lifting and eating more volume than you thought you could to gain muscular body weight?  

Are you comfortable embracing THE PROCESS and taking it one training session at a time and one meal at a time?  

This applies in life as well.  

Are you comfortable doing something you hate like public speaking or working 60 hours a week to get the job done?  

Are you comfortable making the tough decisions?  

Are you comfortable with not taking the easy way out?  

Are you willing to GET COMFORTABLE BEING UNCOMFORTABLE?