"Be willing to be uncomfortable. Be comfortable being uncomfortable" - Peter McWilliams

I was recently a guest on the Concealed Carry Podcast with my friend, Riley Bowman. One of the viewers, Connor Messner, had a comment that got me thinking about the role discomfort plays in training. If we accept the stipulation that growth comes from discomfort, which I do, then we need to examine how to best use discomfort to improve.

There are different types of discomfort. There’s the physical discomfort that exertion brings. There’s more than one type of physical discomfort though. There’s the burn of muscular endurance. There’s the grind of absolute strength. There’s the discomfort of momentary muscular failure. There’s the pain of long distance endurance. There’s the oxygen debt of high intensity interval work. All of these, and others, are flavors of physical discomfort.

Then there’s mental discomfort. And just like physical discomfort, there are many types of mental discomfort. There’s the suck of environmental exposure. There’s the mental load caused by practicing at the edge of skill and slightly beyond. There’s the cognitive load cased by stacking tasks in increasing complexity. There’s the mental stress of competition or testing. There’s the emotional stress of seeking lofty goals or the court of public opinion. All of these, and more, are kinds of mental discomfort. 

All effective training involves some level of discomfort. But we need to pick the appropriate kind of discomfort to elicit the training response we are trying to create. If I need to improve my baseline endurance, then that training should involve the pain of long slow endurance work. If I’m working on my mental toughness and resilience, the suck of environmental exposure makes sense. If I need to shoot faster then I should be practicing the mental load of practicing at a pace just barely out of my reach. 

It is essential to use the right kind and amount of discomfort needed to improve the skill or attribute I’m working on in any given training event. Choosing the right stress creates improvement but choosing the wrong one impairs it. Environmental stress does nothing for speed or accuracy in shooting. The grind of maximal strength doesn’t help my VO2 max. 

Program and template your discomfort like you do the rest of the elements that make up your training. Being comfortable with being uncomfortable is an incredibly powerful tool, but only if it’s used appropriately. Use discomfort to your advantage and you will reach your potential efficiently. Use it inappropriately and you’ll never reach your potential no matter how much effort you put in…