This is something that too few people understand. You WILL get injured during your fitness quest. It might happen when you least expect it, it might have been easily avoided, it might have been something stupid you did, or it might have been almost unavoidable. But one thing is for sure — if you exercise long enough and/or hard enough, you will eventually get injured in some way and have to deal with it.

This seems to be a major shock to people new to fitness. They expect exercise to be powerful enough to change their bodies but somehow not powerful enough to hurt them. Anything that is powerful is potentially dangerous. One comes with the other.

The main thing is this — how do you react?

You’d be surprised at the number of people that react to even the slightest pain by outright quitting. It’s crazy. “My knee hurts a little today so I better take six months off.” They seem to be looking for any excuse to give it all up and a little pain here or there provides that excuse.

Obviously injuries need to be dealt with and you should take them seriously but don’t let a little ache or pain prevent you from exercising.

Instead, see it as a test of your resolve. A test of your will. Are you a quitter just looking for an excuse to give up or will you persevere and find a way to train?

How you deal with a potential injury says a lot about you.