NO PAIN, NO GAIN . . . NO BRAIN!
The social myth and competitive peer pressure associated with “no pain, no gain”—an attitude that “more is better” regarding more speed, more distance, more weights, and so forth—poses both fitness and health problems. Because when you’re fully engaged in this approach, you override your brain’s common sense—its instincts and intuition—to slow down during training. Making a conscious effort to go against what the brain wants to do can contribute to overtraining, often with an accompanying injury. And in many cases, the result can be poor performance when this takes place during a race. We can call this “no pain, no gain, no brain” following Dr. Tim Noakes’s reference to VO2max testing as a “brainless model” of exercise performance testing. In both situations, the brain is not able to adequately regulate the most effective body activity, based on what information the brain is given by the body. This is the case when trying to train too hard too often, because the athlete has consciously chosen to override the brain’s better judgment. This is an emotional reaction—one that is based on current trends, often started by advertisements and other marketing—and one that can be irrational.

How sensitive is the issue of including anaerobic workouts during aerobic base building? It’s quite individual. In many athletes, even an occasional anaerobic run during a base period, for example, may be enough to slow aerobic progress. In others who strictly avoid anaerobic training but have a very stressful lifestyle, the same problem of not fully developing aerobic function can occur. The reason is that the anaerobic stimulation from a workout, and the biochemical changes that follow, can adversely affect the aerobic system and any potential benefits including increased fat burning. The extent of this potential problem varies with the individual. In some athletes, for example, especially those who have been injured or have not performed to their potential, there is a need to spend three to six months building an aerobic base. Others may just need to perform this exclusive aerobic training during a major part of the year. In some cases, an athlete’s training is best done aerobically for both performance and optimal health.

While it’s clear that anaerobic training can impair aerobic function, a common question is: Just how do anaerobic training, competition, or other physical, chemical, and mental stresses interfere with aerobic development? There may be several mechanisms associated with this problem:

 

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  • Stress of any type can interfere with the aerobic system by raising the hormone cortisol. High cortisol can interfere with many physiological processes in the brain, muscles, and metabolism that are necessary to develop aerobic function and endurance.
  • High cortisol levels, a common marker of overtraining, also increases insulin levels, inhibiting the fat-burning process necessary for aerobic muscles to work well.
  • Anaerobic training can decrease the number of aerobic muscle fibers, sometimes significantly. This can happen in just a few short weeks.
  • Anaerobic training raises your respiratory quotient, meaning that fat burning is reduced and sugar burning is increased, encouraging further use of anaerobic function and less aerobic activity.
  • Excessive amounts of lactic acid produced during anaerobic training may impair aerobic muscle enzymes, reducing aerobic function.
  • Anaerobic training typically causes athletes to consume more refined carbohydrates because of an increased craving for sugar. This can increase insulin levels and further interfere with fat burning, reducing aerobic function.

For many endurance athletes the lack of sufficient aerobic conditioning can cause many problems, including serious physical, chemical, and mental injuries. This problem is not unlike a nutritional deficiency such as anemia. I call the problem “the aerobic deficiency syndrome,” or ADS, and it exists in millions of endurance athletes.