Whether you’re training for your first 5K or your tenth marathon, we all reach a point as we’re pushing ourselves to the limit where we hit the pain barrier.
“The good news is, it’s possible to break through that barrier and keep going,” say Claire Dale and Patricia Peyton, the authors of Physical Intelligence. “Our brains and bodies have a complex neural mechanism called a ‘central governor’, part of our survival system that keeps us from harm or injury, so that when we feel pain or fatigue we instinctively want to stop the activity that is causing it,” they explain.