THE SCIENCE OF SUFFERING

Is there any truth to the adage 'no pain, no gain'? Steve Shrubsall heads to the lab to find out which endurance sport is the most painful when improving performance

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Call me a masochist, a dopamine junky, or just a good old-fashioned weirdo - I'll happily answer to all of the above - but I love nothing more than to find myself teetering on the verge of complete physiological breakdown. Yes, this might sound strange, but as someone who is more or less addicted to endurance sports, it’s also a rite of passage. In order to progress beyond mediocrity in disciplines such as running, rowing and cycling, learning how to suffer and then being able to embrace the pain is arguably the sharpest arrow you can add to your quiver. Once you are no longer fearful of taking your mind and body on a kamikaze voyage through darkness, despair and abject misery, life conversely becomes a lot easier. Pain, as they say, is inevitable while suffering is optional.

With this mantra firmly at the front of my mind I decided to add to the general unpleasantness of this winter by attempting to ascertain which endurance activity elicits the most pain.

Setting the benchmarks

Running, cycling and rowing are arguably the three most popular endurance sports in the UK. And happily three of their standard race distances all more or less take the same amount of time to complete. The 5km run to the initiated could only be considered a pleasant experience if you aren't trying to smash your PB in half - and 5km runners for the most part are always trying to smash their PB in half.