It’s so easy to go “I can make this pain stop.” How you go about that speaks a lot about determination. In a workout there is always the ability to stop. Unless you are working with a personal trainer it is usually just you driving the workout. You can make the pain stop simply by stopping. Take your water, your sweat ridden body and get up. Turn on the TV, sit at the computer or get in your car and fool yourself into believing your work out was “good enough.”

Or you could say “five more.” I do five more and I can stop. Numbers sometimes seem arbitrary. Three sets of ten or five sets of three. I don’t know the science behind the numbers and I don’t really care. It is hitting that number that matters. That number is a tiny goal and the only one stopping you from reaching it is you. That is the only thing that stands in the way of you and a healthy body.

Little goals drive your workout. You can choose to set that arbitrary number and hit it or set that number and give up. It truly is that simple. Which one do you think will fulfill you more? You’re sitting down after your work out – are you basking in your little accomplishment or are you chiding yourself for not finishing that last set or that one last push up or sit up? Or worse – do you even care?

Five more may seem like a lifetime away when you can’t think straight, your body hurts and your sweat is pooling on the floor, but take away all those factors – how far does five more feel sitting behind your computer? Not so far away now, huh?