TRAINING CENTER

THE PAIN PARADOX

By Robert Portman, PhD

For the triathlete, pain and suffering are badges of honor. Triathletes pride themselves on their ability to keep going when their body says stop. Developing mental toughness is as important a part of their training program as improving their stroke efficiency.

Every triathlete copes with pain in different ways. Two-time world champion Leanda Cave says, “ You have to learn how to deal with the pain. If you really push yourself in a workout you quickly realize that you are not going to die from the pain. In fact when I feel pain in a workout I view it as a benefit since I know it’s a quality workout. When I feel pain in a race I know I can push through it.”

What makes the discussion of pain so interesting, however, is that the hormone that helps raise our pain threshold and enables us to keep going when every muscle in our body is saying stop, is the same hormone that, left unchecked, makes our recovery after competition or hard workouts much more difficult. That hormone is cortisol. Although we think of cortisol as the body’s primary catabolic (break down) hormone, studies have indicated that cortisol plays a key role in raising pain threshold. The higher our pain threshold is, the greater our ability to endure pain. Cortisol exerts this effect by its action on certain areas of the brain responsible for the generation of pain signals.

From an evolutionary perspective, this role of cortisol makes a great deal of sense. Cortisol is the hormone that helps provide energy to the muscles during periods of extreme stress. Thus, if our Paleolithic ancestors were running from a predator these two actions of cortisol represent a survival mechanism. One action of cortisol provides instant energy to muscles so they can keep functioning and the second action of cortisol tells the brain, “don’t stop”.

However, for a serious triathlete, who is training every day, these two actions work at cross purposes. During hard training, cortisol is released resulting in increased breakdown of protein for use as muscle energy. This gets you through a workout or competition but can be very destructive on your ability to recover.

Research has shown that one can get the mental toughness effects of cortisol while at the same mitigating its catabolic or anti-recovery actions. Sports scientists at James Madison University compared the effect of a carbohydrate-only sports drink to a carbohydrate- protein sports drink. They found that following consumption of a carbohydrate- protein sports drink, the biomarker of muscle damage was reduced by 83%. What appears to be happening is that the muscle utilizes the protein in the sports drink as an energy source rather than cannibalizing its own protein through cortisol release. Not surprisingly, this reduction in muscle damage was associated with a 40% improvement in endurance performance in a workout conducted 16 hours later.

Last year Leanda completed three triathlons in three weeks. In weeks one and two she competed in 70.3 events. The final race in this sequence was the Arizona Ironman. Amazingly Leanda podiumed in all three events. “Once I decided to compete three weeks in a row I knew recovery was critical, she says. I paid close attention to nutrition since I knew it could help me recover faster. Between races I was consuming a 4-1 carb/protein recovery drink twice a day and drinking a carb/protein sports drink throughout my workouts. By the time I got to my third race I actually felt pretty good at the start, although I clearly struggled during the race.”

The key take-away -refueling with the right combination of macronutrients is an effective way for a triathlete to control muscle damage while maintaining the mechanism that helps them raise the pain threshold.