Recipe: (Recovery) snack by Miesha Tate

So, Miesha Tate posted the recipe for a well-balanced snack (well-balanced in regard to macro-nutrients) on her instagram the other day, and of course I had to try it. It had peanut butter in it. 

The recipe is simple enough;

3/4 cups vanilla yoghurt

1/2 scoop protein powder

2 Tblsps Peanut Butter (there it is)

1/2 cup Granola

Mix these together in a bowl and enjoy. Good for recovery after training or just as a snack to fend off sweet cravings (it's true!). It's fat to protein to carb ratio is great, as I've already said, but you should keep in mind that it is by no means low calorie, so if you're on a diet, really integrate it into your meal plan, so there's no bad awakening.

Thank you, Miesha Tate, this will be a new go-to snack of mine. 

-K

No Sugar Challenge

I got a problem with sugar; I'm either off it or on it. Being off it means, I get all my carbs from fruit and veggies. Being on sugar means that I'm eating enormous amounts of chocolate, ice cream and cookies. And when I'm talking about enormous, I am talking about a whole tub of ice cream or a whole chocolate bar (the 100-200g kind, not 30-40g). During my graduation weekend I've eaten so much junk food that of course all my eating habits went out of whack and my body is craving fatty and sugary foods again.

This was the first helping at the kebab and pizza buffet where we went for my graduation. The first helping still contained salad. :D

This weekend is Midsummer in Finland, which means tomorrow the stores are open for a limited amount of time and on Saturday all the stores are closed. I got no chocolate or ice cream here at home. So, I'm going cold turkey, because no matter how hard I'll be craving sweets, there's no getting them. And - at least to me - the first two days are always the hardest. 

Now, this has nothing to do with losing weight or anything, but consuming sugary sweets makes me feel a bit off. Plus, I get acid reflux pretty easily. And I don't get the energy I get from "real" food. Actually it is quite paradox, how I love to eat chocolate and ice cream when I know that they make me feel bad. In the end, I've decided to stay off sugar and fatty food until August. Which is going to be a challenge because summer is ice cream time. On the other hand, I've probably eaten enough ice cream for two life times. ;)
My aunt is coming to visit me next weekend, so this is going to be a real challenge, but on the other hand, nothing like a challenge to make it more interesting. 

Motivation - what get's me going when I don't want to go?

I've been training 10-15h a week on average - come rain, come shine - for the last two and a half years if not longer. I usually do a session in the morning and one in the evening. This led to some seriously confused faces, especially during times when I had loads of stuff on plate, like uni, work, internships etc. One of my friends straight up asked me, how I am able to deal with having no spare time at all. 

The secret is: sports and training to me are spare time. Quality spare time to be honest. Whenever I got a crazy schedule, the first thing to go is tv. Now, I don't even own tv (I got a tv, with a dvd-player, that's not hooked up to satellite or anything), so if I watch tv shows and movies, it's after a longer period of contemplation of what I could watch. If I have no time, well, then there is no tv. You got no idea of the amounts of hours one can while away by just hanging around in front of a tv (or mindless surfing on the internet for that matter), even though there isn't even anything interesting on. So, there's a goldmine of hours you can potentially use for exercise. 

After useless time in front of the tv is gone, I start to plan my days more effectively. There've been times where my life was scheduled down to the minute (well, 15min intervals to be exact).

Me this morning at 7am waiting for Body Pump class to start.

But why would I do all that for... exercise? 

Because training to me is a habit that helps me deal with stress, is fun and lets me interact with people. I don't even think about it any more, I have a routine and I stick to that routine, sometimes for months. There are days when I don't even think about it anymore, the act of packing and shouldering my gym bag being so natural that I might find myself at the gym at the time I've always been there, without even noticing it. 

There are times when this is more difficult, though.

When I am on a really tight schedule. I plan ahead. I write down every single engagement and meeting and then I fit in the classes or the exercise I can do around them. Sometimes I also make appointments according to my workout schedule (actually I do this as far as possible).

When I am exhausted or my muscles are extremely sore. But. That is actually a sign to consider. If I'm so sore that getting out of bed in the morning seems like a daunting task, then I know I should consider a rest day. Mostly I get up, stretch a little, do some light sun salutations and evaluate the situation again when I got the morning stiffness out of my limbs. If it feels okay, I go, if not: rest day (or some light alternative exercise like Body Balance or Yoga) it is.

When I really don't want to go to training. Well, that happens rarely enough. And if it happens then it is mostly a certain kind of training I am not particularly interested in at that moment, which may be due to having done too much of it for a prolonged amount of time or just not wanting to do it at that moment. Mostly I just try to figure out what my problem is exactly and then see if I might be interested in another way of training or another class. If this goes on for a prolonged amount of time, I try to get behind the reasons why I don't like to do that right now and why I started doing it in the first place. Right now, I'm a little stuck with MMA, because spring has been pretty rough and full of major and minor disappointments, plus I trained a lot in spring, sometimes just forcing myself to train because "I have a match coming up and I have to go". In addition I wasn't allowed to do any submission wrestling for a few weeks because of my neck-shoulder-condition (that starts getting better) and my work schedule has been pretty stuffed. So, I decided to not feel guilty about taking those few weeks off, because afterwards I can go back to training for the fun of it. 

When I'm feeling generally uninterested in anything. That's when I just kick my own butt to the gym, because I know that afterwards I will feel better. It helps that many of our instructors at my gym are just great guys and gals, who I really enjoy seeing/meeting. Plus, normally, I love MMA, submission wrestling, Body Combat, Grit, bouldering and Body Pump. And maybe that's what's most important: finding a sport or class you love to go to. Finding a way of training you enjoy. And once you've found it, it's like I said in the beginning: training is quality spare time. 

Sh'Bam - or: comfort zones are personal

So, I had a great graduation weekend, but yesterday it was back to business as usual. I had a lot of stuff to do in the morning (massage, seeing my friend off, etc.) and then I was already expected at work. The only way to get some exercise in (after a weekend of eating and relaxing), was after work. And luckily there was still a Sh'Bam class given in the evening, so I could attend that.

Stop. Wait a second.

Me? Sh'Bam?

Well, yes. I have decided to try new things this summer and while Sh'Bam wasn't new to me per se (I had been attending one or two classes before, but it was disastrous), I wanted to get out of my comfort zone in the sense that I would try it again. For one, because it was the only class I could make it to in time and secondly, because I believe in widening my own horizon.

I mean, I enjoy bouldering. I love martial arts, be it MMA or Muay Thai. I've even tried out sword fighting. But dancing scares the living jack out of me. Because I'm no good at it.  Other people might be enjoying themselves greatly in dance classes and be afraid of climbing or boxing, but that's the thing about comfort zones, though: they are personal. I got two left feet and the lack of rhythm to match. When I say, the last Sh'Bam classes I attended were a disaster, I am talking about me being of the beat, being incredibly stiff, not getting the moves "right" and going into the wrong direction and bumping into the person next to me. 

Yesterday was different. I decided to not be bothered by being a little spazzy, because there's one thing everybody's comfort zones have in common: they should be broken every now and then. So, I tried, and then an instructor with whom I've always gotten along quite well, but who had been working at a different gym these last few years, turned out to be giving the class and she was thrilled to see me (as was I to see her). So, there went a lot of the sinking feeling in my stomach, because she can turn even the most dull class into a party. 

And let me tell you, I had fun. Once I started to let go of the thought that I'd have to be perfect, I had loads of fun. Plus, it was an intense workout, even though I did not really realise that at the time. At some point I noticed, I was severely winded, out of breath. From dancing around. It also helped that some of my fav songs - you know, guilty pleasures - were part of the choreo (e.g. Usher's Yeah). Take that, rewind it back. Usher got the voice make your booty go (smack)!

Sh'Bam is a Les Mills Group Fitness Class that features simple but effective dance moves to a wide range of music, from Latin to Pop to Hip Hop to "Golden Oldies". The class is 45 minutes and supposed to burn about 500 kcal. But most of all, it's supposed to be fun. 

MMA and Grit Strength 13 - or: Hearteyes, baby

Yesterday, I had a more relaxed training day, after Monday had been kind of rough. And by relaxed I mean... only 2,5hrs training. MMA and Body Balance. After Monday MMA was hard; we did a lot of hooks and upper cuts and my shoulders were sore from Body Combat and Body Pump the day before. Now, our coach always likes to send us back into the world with a grueling last exercise, yesterday it was jab-cross-tabata. We did jab-cross-combos (either fast or heavy) for a minute and got 20sec rest. Then again combos and rest. We did five rounds of that. Our coach actually took a video from that last set. I'm back there in the white Bad Boy-shorts and my technique is way off, I'm so tired. I wasn't even able to raise my hands properly:

MMA training

But. Today. I finally got to try Grit Strength 13 and I loved it. I did a "light" Body Combat class before and was already pretty done with the world, but I had to prove a point. To myself. Best decision ever. 

I love the new choreo. There's a new move in there: 

New Move

And it's coming up in Track 2 already. As always, track 1 is warm-up. Track 2 is 3 sets of two different moves you do for 30sec first. 3sec break. 10sec reps. 3sec break and a last 10sec rep round. The first move is squat to push press with a bar bell, the second is this new move. 

Track 3 is fun, because you get a little movement into the otherwise static set up: you have two teams facing each other, one does high knees for 30sec, the other upright rows to shoulder press. Then the teams change moves. After two rounds, the teams get new moves. Team 1 does jumping lunges (if there's anything I hate more than burpees, it's jump lunges...*sighs*) and team 2 moving press ups. 

Track 4 was 45sec for each set, first set 7 upright rows and 7 rows, as many rounds as possible. Second set 7 burpees (aaand there they are) and 7 press ups. After you're through with both sets, you do the same, but the rep count goes down from 7 to 5. 

Track 5 was the one minute challenge, where you took your weight plate, did a squat and one squat jump. Then one squat, two squat jumps and so on for - as the name of the challenge says - one minute. As many rounds as possible. I got to 7,4 today. 

And then it's core. And let me tell you, after these last few days, my core was incredibly sore. Actually, I can feel the muscles moving beneath the skin these days, which feels a tad weird, to be honest. I have never been an athletic child, so being an athletic adult still feels strange to me. 

But that's it, that's the new Grit. And I love it, because you can really push yourself to your limits (especially after a Body Combat-class). Came close to barfing today. But that's also the fast level changes, when doing stuff in an upright position and then going down to do a press up or sth of the sort. Does anyone of you know the feeling? It's not even being exhausted, but the fast level changes. 

And tomorrow my best friend is coming to visit for my graduation ceremony and we'll have a blast. She'll be here all weekend, so you'll probably not hear from me in a few days. Have a nice one, guys! :)

New Les Mills releases and a great weekend

June is already almost half way done. But that means that the new Les Mills choreos, the ones that will be with us all summer, have been released at our gym last weekend. On Sunday, to be exact. 

Saturday, to me, was a forced rest day, because I was at work from 7-16, and afterwards I visited a friend for her belated b-day bash. And seeing that we are both that breed of couch potato that does not appreciate wild parties and even wilder outings in town, she decided to bake muffins and pizza for the two of us and make it a movie night. We haven't had movie night in a long time and I haven't had pizza in a long time. For good measure, I also brought a packet of biscotti, and the DVDs: "Man of the Year" with the late Robin Williams and "Johnny English 2", mostly because I've been missing London these last few weeks months.

Home-made pizza!!!

But that's just how I spent my one rest day of the week. Sunday came finally and brought with it the new Body Balance and Body Combat releases (for me, that is). 

The new Balance was different. I find it hard to really judge a choreo after the first time around and with Balance, I'm almost always like... "Meh" after the first try. This time I liked the moves alright, but I wasn't too much into the music. Especially the first track didn't really get me into that "Balance"-feel, you know? 

The sun salutations are nice and I really liked the balance track, but the pilates core training was a bit... I don't know, boring? Plus, it went more on my hip flexors than into my core, but that might also be because my hip flexors are pretty tense most of the time. If it doesn't change, I have to ask our instructors for advice. 

The savasana at the end is great, though. Great music, you can follow along the piano melody lines into relaxation and calmness. And it just sounds pretty. Today, I will be trying Balance for the second time, maybe my feelings toward it will change a little.

In the afternoon I went and tried the new Combat, in which they changed not only the music, but also the lay out/concept of the class. Combat Class feels much fiercer now than it did before and the music reflects that as well. Instead of just being an interval class, it is now a high-intensity interval class, you might also call it HIIT. The first track already differs from its predecessors, even though the first Combat track might remind you of some of the ones that have been done before. It feels incredibly short, though. The first power track is already taking you to a different intensity if you roll with it and the second Combat track, track number 4, is conditioning as it already has been in 63. Number 5, the second power track is reminiscent of GRIT Cardio, with short intervals of hard work and a few breaks for your heart rate to come down. Track 6 killed me, though. I don't know if I ever mentioned that I hate - HATE - lunges. And track 6 has a lot of them. My legs were burning after that and the thought that there were still 2 aerobic tracks to go, one of which Muay Thai, was not a nice one. :D But Muay Thai is great!!! There's power and there's pain in this track and I just love it. You can really play yourself tired in this one. And then there's your basic track 8. But after that choreo, the basic track 8 feels hardcore, too. Conditioning and stretching are fine, there are only so many core exercises you can do and if you've been to a few CX classes, there are few things that are new. 

But after that class, I was done for the day. Really and genuinely done. 

After Body Combat 64. Lower right corner 30 seconds afterward, upper left 30 minutes after, when the endorphins started kicking in. 

Yesterday I did Combat again and afterward (and after a short break) I tried the new Pump. Lots of tension being built up and a pain in the ass. Or should I say a gain in the ass? The squats are okay if you do them so-so, but really engage in the track and shoot, you get your legs to shake. 

Chest hurts like hell with the right weight, I guess, yesterday I took it a little easier because my chest was already done in from the Combat conditioning and I did not know what was coming up. I loved the back track, which was really efficient in building strength and raising heart rates. The triceps track was okay, it was pretty similar to the one in 93, only the dips were a little nastier. Same with the biceps track. That one maybe let me down a little because I had heard beforehand that this one was reeeeaaal tough and then it was... well, I liked the one in 93 better and I got a better burn from it, but let's see what happens, maybe I get to add some weight... And then, lunges. Again. I did them without additional weight because my form goes way off, when I'm tired and doing them with weights. Also, I did not want to and could not find it in me to convince myself as my legs were already close to giving out. And it was good, because it was a lot of bottom ones. The track name "We Make It Bounce" is not a joke, I tell ya. The shoulder track. was. sick. I loved it. It burned and hurt in all the right places! And then there was core and stretching and we were done with that class, too. I liked it. In hindsight, I think I liked it a lot. 

I also kept working on my spine flexibility and yoga over all, after attending a class on Friday, where we were shown a pose called "Bird of Paradise", I made it my mission to perfect that pose. It looked so impossible at first, but actually it's quite easy. And it's a great stretch for your shoulders and legs. 

Bird of Paradise

Also, my hair has been growing so much into an emo thing (with it falling into my eyes all the time), that I have to take it together into a small "pony tail" these days. It looks ridiculous at best, but it is damn practical.

gym "bunny tail"

And now I'll put my hair into the bunny tail (because pony tail is just an exaggeration) and leave for MMA. For the first time in ages. Happy!!!

Someone's gotta have your back

My neck, my back...
Nope, not going there, not a good idea. 

I've been hesitant to share this with a potentially indefinite audience, because I'm still feeling a little ambivalent about this thing myself. But your back is important and you have to take good care of it. Back muscles are one of the fastest muscle group to grow, but still many people fatefully neglect their backs. 

Why am I so concerned with this?

When I was nine years old, I broke my T5. That's the fifth vertebra in the thoracic spine.

I was on bed rest for four weeks, causing the muscles in my legs to deteriorate to the point where I had to learn walking again. The memory was there, but the muscles weren't. It was a scary experience that I wish on nobody, because well, as a toddler you don't get the process, it's nothing you do consciously. Plus, the floor is closer if you fall. But that's a whole other story. Fact is, when I was walking again and living life like nothing happened, I had passed this one on to the closed files. It was something that had happened to me a long time ago and sometimes in "what if..."scenarios I'd realise just how lucky I had been. 

Fast forward ten years. The edge of my left trapezius muscle starts getting stiff on some days. Whenever I move my shoulder blade in an up and down motion, it makes an ugly sound. It's only the left one, though. 

Another few years. I start working out. It's more often than not these days that my shoulder blade catches on the edge of my trapezius and my upper back is tense most of the time. Working out releases some of the tension. Sometimes when the tension lessens, I get aural migraines and have to puke from the pain. Probably just bad posture. Still only the left side.

Another few years later. I start MMA. I'm a leftie. The catching of the shoulder blade on the edge of the muscle, the reduced movement radius and the pain make things a little harder, but not unbearable. It works okay. Not well, but okay. Some days now, my right side starts to show symptoms, too. I've been having this for so long, it can't be that bad.

Summer 2014. Made a strange move with my head when I tried looking over my right shoulder. Can't move without pain. Have to sit down. Go to work where my boss asks me why I'm so pale. Tell her I'm not feeling well. Am sick to my stomach from the pain. After a few hours I cannot sit anymore because it hurts. Decide to stand up. Cannot support the weight of my own head with the muscles in my neck because it hurts so bad. Sit down again. Start crying when the pain comes rushing in in waves. My boss tells me to go to the doctor. Now. Like: NOW! Cannot get up. My boss sends someone to buy pain meds. After I took two 400 Ibuprofens I am able to make it to the doctor's office. Which was about 500m from my workplace. 

The doctor looks at me. Sits behind her desk and looks at me. Asks me where it hurts. Asks me to turn my head. Cannot physically turn my head. Pain. She says I should probably stretch more, go get a massage when everything's a little better. I don't tell her that I do yoga and go see a sports masseuse every other week. I would have probably shown these symptoms earlier if not. She prescribes me muscle relaxants and strong pain meds. As I get up to leave she asks me what I do for a living. If I needed sick leave. I considered it for a moment, then said no. I was part-time cleaning and part-time doing office/human resources work for the same company. I wanted to believe her, when she said, all I needed to do was stretch more. But. It didn't really help. 

The residual pain got stronger. I've never hat acute pain like that after this incident, but my upper back hurt. Every. Single. Day. 

A couple of months ago I realised I was eating pain meds like other people eat candy. I thought about going to the doctor again. Decided against it and stretched more. 

Then, one day, the feeling in my left hand left partly. There was a tingling sensation where I still felt something. I called my boss and asked her to see our work physiotherapist. And Wednesday I went. I finally got to go. She was nice. Asked lots of questions. Told me if she did not know I was in pain, she would have never seen anything. My posture is better than average and outwardly there's not much to see. Then she bend and shaped me a little. Tried the flexibility of my muscles, limbs, how my arms move, everything. 

Finally she said: "There's a slight disturbance somewhere around your C5. And your spine from there down to T5 is really rigid. I believe that this stems from the same trauma that caused the breaking of your T5, but because everybody was focused on the broken vertebra, they might have easily overlooked any trauma in the soft tissue surrounding your spine." 

So there it was. My ghost had come back to haunt me again. And it had brought friends. 

It is a strange feeling when you've been dealing with something a long time ago and have actually found closure, just to find out that nothing is as easy as it seems. I got some spine mobility exercises from my physiotherapist and now - only one and a half day later - I am pain-free for the first time in ages! 

I have to do an exercise similar to this, just a little higher. This mobilises the thoracic spine, if you put the resistance across your shoulder blades, and bend your head back in a half-circle, you mobilise your cervical spine.

There are two things I am feeling right now:

1: relief. Constant pain is something you learn to live with, but you are always kind of strung out, weary, there's always this voice in the back of your head: "It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. Acknowledge the pain." You only realise that when you're pain-free. It's like Bucky Barnes once said: "Worse off became the new normal", but that doesn't mean that worse off is good.

2: anger, frustration at myself for not seeking help years earlier. For letting it come so far. 

So, take good care of your back. Keep old injuries in mind whenever there are symptoms close to them. Go to the doctor on time. Here are some great exercises for spine mobility: 

Utthita Trikonasana expands your chest and shoulders, increases neck mobility and stretches your spinal muscles. Plus many other things. 

And this is one of my favourite exercises to help thoracic mobility. 

And here's kind of a cheat sheet for quick spinal mobility exercises and better posture. 

I hope you got a little bit out of my experience and maybe a little inspiration to give your back a little love <3

Pain and sports

Pain without love

Pain I can't get enough 
Pain I like it rough
Cause I'd rather feel pain than nothing at all
(Three Days Grace - Pain)

"An athlete doesn't see a healthy day" [urheilija ei tervettä päivää näe] - Finnish proverb.

"Push through the pain"

"Love the burn"

"Better sore than sorry"

"No pain, no gain"

We all know these fitspo-slogans coursing up and down the internet. We all want to be brave, we all want to push through the pain, gritting our teeth and be the person who does all this fitspo-superhero-romantic stuff. But how do you know when enough is enough? How do you know that your body can go no further?
Pain actually is a warning sign, it is supposed to tell you that you are not okay. That you should slow down a bit. We all know this, but still we grit our teeth and keep on doing what we're doing until we just physically cannot push any further.
Believe me, I know.

Just a few bruises, a taped-up joint capsule and toe and a swollen ankle...

I'm still trying to figure out what the right measure is. When to stop. I'm the worst when it comes to not giving in to reason because it feels like giving up.
In January I woke up one morning and started crying when I tried to get out of bed, but was so sore that I needed about two minutes to just sit up. Everything hurt. But the worst thing was: it had been that way for the last four and a half months. I woke up this one January morning and realised that I could not remember a day when nothing in my body ached within the last four and a half months. It had been enough. I took a week-long break. I had gone all this time doing sometimes up to 20 hours worth of workouts or stretching or anything at all related to sports a week, most weeks making do with one rest day. Sometimes none. I remember there being a streak where I had gone almost twenty days without rest. I was hanging at the end of my rope. And there I was, trying to sit up, crying. But why do we let it get so far?

For me it was pride, one of my main triggers, and the will to prove that I was just as good, just as strong, just as robust as the guys. No, I wanted to be better than the guys. As the only girl working out and training with a bunch of guys, you get this false sense of having to prove you're worth it. Having to prove that you can take a hit. You feel like you have to put in twice the work the guys do, show them you are indestructible, not realising that all you achieve is destruction.
And I wanted to compete in MMA. I had to improve, no matter what the cost, I could not simply skip training because something hurt. I broke my toe and kept on going. I couldn't walk right, but that didn't keep me from jumping, lifting, and sparring. I taped it, it hurt like hell every time I removed the tape. It didn't heal properly. But... everyone was doing it. Our trainer had all his toes taped. It was a running gag. Broken toes and training with them are an everyday thing.
I messed up the joint capsule of my right big toe a few weeks later. Hurt real bad. Still hurts and it's been almost four months. Again, I couldn't walk properly. Again, I taped it. Am still taping it before some training sessions.
I can't move my right thumb right, because I once hit a right hook a little off kilter and my thumb connected with the pad, there was a strange noise and pain. Didn't matter, I had a match coming up.
The knuckles in my boxing gloves were bruised and/or bloody a few times, but there was still three training eras to go. So I went the whole nine yards. Got a few pale scars on my knuckles these days.

no need to explain this, is there? 

And then there are the bruises. Lots and lots of bruises. Some hurt more, some less.

This one hurt a little more...ouchie

And last but not least, the soreness. The feeling that you just cannot get out of bed in the morning because your body just hurts.
And what for? Pride. A false sense of achievement when you swap war stories with your peers. And then you get to the point, where you're super girl. When your trainer tells the rest of the group: "Guys, just look at the lady. Now there's a good example for all of you!" or someone just says in passing: "Well, but no challenge for you, it's probably child's play to you." They don't see that you hurt. And how could they when you've become so good in just pushing harder whenever it hurt.
And at some point you start to believe your own press.


When I got the news that even my last match of the season - the fourth cancellation this spring - would not happen because there was no suitable opponent, I crashed totally. Only then, the excitement and anticipation leaving me, did I realise just how messed up my body was. And not because someone else told me to keep on going, but because I kept telling myself that I had to. I got an all-or-nothing kind of attitude that makes it hard for me to slow down once I've found something I like, I'm crazy ambitious/competitive and I have this slightly addictive nature. Sports tickles that the wrong way sometimes. I have to learn to do the moderation thing. I'm working on it.

A good start was my trainer, who at one point told me to remember to rest. When that did not help, he actually told me to keep my feet still the rest of the day and the next day. Rest. Whenever I'd look too tired, he'd ask me what kind of workouts I had done that week, how many rest days I'd had. If he didn't like the answer, he told me to slow down. If the answer was alright, he'd tell me to remember to eat. At one point he continuously told me to remember to eat well. I had probably lost too much weight/speed/strength at that point and didn't even notice myself. A good trainer with your best interests at heart is worth everything and more.
But what if you don't have that voice of reason?

A) Learn to distinguish different forms of pain. There is good pain (like the burning in your thighs after you did a hard squat set) and then there's bad pain (like the stinging pain in your knee after you've been doing deep squats on five days in a row without a rest day and maximum weights). Those are just extreme examples. If a certain movement hurts, don't do it or get someone to tell you if your technique/posture/etc. is right.
B) Good pain can become bad pain, too. Remember my soreness-story? Not good. You need to give your body some well earned rest if you want to see muscle/strength growth or any kind of development.
C) Listen to your body. This sounds easier than it actually is because there are all these other motivators screaming over the voice of your body. But if your body says it's not a good day to get in a Body Pump/Combat/Step/Attack-session, then don't go because the instructor's cute (been there, done that :P), don't go because you ate that cupcake and now have to train off the calories (it doesn't really work like that anyway), don't go because you always go (most stupid reason I ever had..."But I always go to this class") and don't go to prove a point to anyone. Not even yourself.

Now, keep in mind that I'm still struggling with these. I still believe there are things worth going through pain. That jacked up ankle in the picture? I didn't tap out in a tournament. And escaped and got my opponent sweeped afterwards. It wasn't pretty, but it gave me that small experience of success.
Hello, my name is Kitty and I am a sports addict. But it's been 8 days since my last incident.

This love - hate - relationship...

You say you can't handle it
But there's no way to stop this now [...]
 Kick, scream call it quits
 But your just so full of it
cause it's too late, to close your mouth [...]
(Orianthi - Shut Up And Kiss Me)

Story time: when I started with the Grit series, I hated it.

I started out with Grit Plyo, because for one, it was something new, training explosive strength and agility. I also like jumping around. I'm not joking, I'm jumping a lot. And Grit Plyo was jumping on the next level. Didn't hurt that I really liked the instructor who made us jump. But HIIT is not for the faint of heart and it's... defo another, totally out there kind of exhausting. So, I hated it from the get go. Like, full-on hated it. But you're supposed to give workouts three to five tries before you decide if you like them or not. I tried to not be too judgemental. Hate. Hate. Wait...  I went the fourth time. Fifth. Sixth. And eventually I found myself telling my friends that "You gotta try this! It's the best thing ever!!!" What had happened?

The beauty that is Grit: I noticed changes, progress. I noticed how I could get in more reps after only two weeks. I felt better and...then there's the definitely wrongly coined "runner's high" when the feeling you have to puke ceases and the endorphins hit. So, I gave Grit Strength a go, too. Oh, and how I loathed it! From the bottom of my heart hated it, swore to never do it ever again. Well. Four weeks ago - exactly two years after my first shot at Plyo - was one of the greatest moments concerning progress so far; during Strength we did last summer's choreo. And I did not think about the weight I'd put on my smart bar, it was the weight I had been using for the newest release for the last few weeks. Until I realised: I did the whole choreo with 5kg (plus 3kg smart bar) more than last summer and yes, it was hard, but manageable. "This is my benchmark now" I don't like using expletives, but Fuck yeah!

Sounds sappy, but two years after I started doing Grit and completely hated it, it is now hard to imagine life without Grit. I've seen muscle definition and strength, rep count and agility increase and it's addictive. What I once thought to be the worst thing I had ever gone through, is now one of the highlights of my week. They should write a Hollywood romance about this hate-relationship turned love. ;)

So, if you ever get the chance to visit a Grit class, do it and don't judge it on the first go. :)