What Counts as "Hard Work"? (Hint: It’s Not Just Sweating and Suffering)
You worked hard. You were drenched in sweat. You pushed to the limit. So why aren’t you seeing results?
If you’ve ever asked yourself that, you’re not alone.
Some of my clients go hard a few times a week and wonder why their body composition hasn’t changed. Others are consistent but chronically fatigued - always sore, always tired, never quite getting faster or stronger. And others get stuck in a loop of impatience, pushing too hard too soon, working around injuries, then flaring those injuries up again because they couldn’t hold back long enough to heal.
And it’s not just them. I see it everywhere. People hammering random high-intensity workouts, redlining every run, repeating the same routine without progression, or punishing themselves with movement that never actually builds them up. It all feels like hard work. But it doesn’t work the way they want it to.
Because not all hard work is created equal.
It’s not that you’re lazy. It’s not that you’re doing it wrong on purpose. You’ve been led to believe that effort equals outcome, and that if you’re not wrecked after a session, it didn’t count. And when the results don’t line up with the effort you’ve put in? It’s confusing. Frustrating. Sometimes it feels personal, like maybe you’re just not built to succeed. But the truth is, you might just be working hard at the wrong things.
Working Out vs. Training
Working out is doing stuff that gets you sweaty, breathing hard, and feeling like you did something. That’s not a bad thing, and it can help, especially mentally. It can be a great outlet for stress or a break from the daily grind.
But if you want long-term physical progress? You need more than just effort. You need intention.
Training means having structure. Purpose. Progressions in load and intensity. Enough consistency to build real adaptation, and enough variety to avoid burnout or stagnation. It means periods of skill development, rest, recovery, and yes, even boredom.
And that discipline? That is hard work.
Training also means thinking in longer arcs, like 4–6 week blocks focused on specific adaptations or goals. You might use one block to build strength, another to sharpen your aerobic capacity, and another to deload or reinforce movement quality. These short cycles can tie into quarterly goals or even planned peaks throughout the year. Whether you’re training for a race, a big hike, a team sport, or just want to look, feel and move your best for summer or the holidays, having those periods to ramp up or taper down adds purpose to the process.
That’s what makes training sustainable. You’re not just working out to burn off last night’s dinner. You’re building something, phase by phase, with clear benchmarks and built-in recovery. You don’t have to train like an athlete, but you can benefit from thinking like one.
The Appeal of Suffering
There’s a reason so many people chase that crushed, can’t-walk-up-the-stairs feeling after a session. It’s the same reason people reach for junk food when they’re stressed: instant gratification.
A workout that leaves you sweaty and smoked feels like success. You feel like you earned your progress. But a skill-based session that focuses on technique, control, or aerobic efficiency might not leave you gasping. It might not feel like much at all in the moment. The payoff is weeks down the road, when you move better, lift more, or recover faster.
And that payoff? It only happens if you stay the course.
That doesn’t mean intense sessions are bad. If your main reason for training is to burn off the stress of the day, that’s totally valid. But if your goals are strength, endurance, body composition, or injury reduction…you’re going to need more than just effort. You’ll need a plan.
The Trap of Chasing Novelty
Another trap that often masquerades as "hard work" is chasing novelty. It’s easy to get drawn into random WODs found online or to believe that constantly changing your routine will shock your body into results. Terms like “muscle confusion” get thrown around like magic bullets, but in practice, all they usually create is chaos.
That kind of variety can keep things exciting. But excitement isn’t the same as effectiveness. If you’re constantly doing something new, your body never has the opportunity to adapt, strengthen, and progress. You end up getting tired, but not necessarily better. Tired doesn’t equal trained.
This doesn’t mean you should do the same workout forever. It means variation needs to be strategic, not random. Planned phases of progression. Cycles with a clear purpose. Enough time spent working on the same skill or lift or energy system to let the adaptations actually take hold.
Doing new things is easy. Sticking with the right things long enough to let them work? That’s hard. And that’s where the results come from.
Recovery Is Work
One of the most counterintuitive truths about training: the growth doesn’t happen during the workout. It happens after.
Training creates intentional damage. It challenges tissues, systems, and structures, but the remodelling happens during recovery. That’s when the body builds itself back stronger.
So if you’re constantly going to the well, hammering session after session without enough sleep, nutrition, or downtime, you’re actually robbing yourself of the gains you could be making.
The hard part? For people who love to push, recovery feels like slacking. The hard part? For people who love to push, recovery can feel like wasted time. But recovery isn't just lying on the couch.
It's prioritising 7–9 hours of consistent, quality sleep, not just when you're tired, but as a non-negotiable part of your training.
It's fuelling with enough protein and carbs to repair and rebuild tissue, instead of under-eating and wondering why you're not recovering.
It's being willing to say no to another high-intensity session and yes to low-intensity walks, mobility work, or time on a foam roller. It's recognising that self-care isn't soft - it's strategic.
Recovery doesn’t mean doing nothing. It means doing what’s necessary. And often, it’s the most overlooked piece of real, sustainable progress.
Recovery isn’t a break from the work. It is the work. It’s the part that often gets dismissed because it’s quiet. It doesn’t look like effort, but it’s where the transformation happens. These aren’t passive behaviours, they’re choices that support every bit of hard training you do. Without them, your ability to adapt and improve is limited, no matter how hard you push in the gym.
The Grind Isn’t Always Glamorous
Here’s something most fitness influencers won’t tell you: real progress usually isn’t exciting. It’s not flashy. It doesn’t go viral.
It’s doing the same movement patterns, with steady progression, over and over. It’s tracking loads, logging reps, managing fatigue, and learning to love the mundane.
The hardest work isn’t always the hardest effort. In fact, it often shows up when you’re least fired up, like when training feels repetitive, results aren’t immediately obvious, and you’re not chasing a new PR or learning something novel. That’s where mental strategies become essential.
I often encourage clients to set small, process-based goals to stay engaged. Things like improving their range of motion in a lift, hitting a certain number of perfect reps with clean form, or sticking to their planned session even when it feels dull. We also use check-ins to celebrate small wins, track trends in energy and consistency, and remind them of the long game they’re playing.
When you stop relying on motivation and start relying on structure, that’s when you know you’re really working. Sometimes it’s showing up on the days where the motivation just isn’t there. Sometimes it’s sticking with a boring but effective plan instead of chasing novelty.
That’s why I get my clients to document their progress. In strength training, it might be volume increases or weekly improvements in a specific lift. For runners, it might be seeing a faster pace in the same heart rate zone. We might even retest a 3RM or do a time trial on a familiar course just to make the improvement visible.
Progress is always happening...but without documentation, it’s easy to miss.
The Power of Invisible Effort
Most people think hard work = being out of breath. But some of the most important work doesn’t look like much from the outside.
Paying attention to form. Backing off when something doesn’t feel right. Fueling your body with what it actually needs instead of what’s convenient. Planning your week around recovery. Tracking your progress even when it feels boring.
All of that is invisible effort. And it’s where the magic really happens. One of my clients, for example, spent the first few weeks of her strength block just getting her deadlift form dialled in. No big lifts, no ego, just consistent reps and a lot of feedback. She was frustrated at first. It felt like she wasn’t "doing enough" compared to the numbers she saw others putting up on the board. But by the end of her cycle, not only was she lifting heavier than she ever had, but she was doing it confidently, without pain, and with flawless form. The best part? She told me it finally felt easy. That’s the payoff of invisible work.
I experienced this myself with running. I was a BIG doubter of the idea that making the majority of my running training "easy" would work. My thinking was: if I wasn't pushing at the kind of efforts or paces that I'd be seeing in my races, how could I be adapting correctly? But all that "easy" training built skill and awareness of things like my gait, my posture, even small details down to the order in which the parts of my foot hit the ground with each foot strike. It helped me build overall efficiency and running economy, and gave me the aerobic base and mechanical competence that allowed me to push even harder when it counted, without breaking down. I didn't just get faster - I got better.
If you’re dialling in your nutrition, you’re making it easier to get what you want out of your training. If you’re tracking your workouts, you’re giving yourself evidence that you are improving, even if your workouts still feel just as hard. (And they probably will, because if your capacity goes up, so does the work you’re doing.)
Sometimes I’ll have a client repeat one of their old workouts using the weight they started with. It’s only then that they feel how much stronger they’ve become. Those moments matter.
The Discipline of Holding Back
Not every season is a grind. Sometimes, the hardest work is not pushing.
It’s doing the easy aerobic work to build your base. It’s sticking with the rehab plan even when your ego wants to go harder. It’s accepting that this chapter might be about maintenance, not maxing out.
That kind of discipline (the mental discipline to do less, or go slower, or focus on the basics) is a different kind of hard. But it’s essential.
Because that’s what builds the foundation you need to push hard later without breaking down. It’s what lets you train for years instead of months. And it’s what carries over into every other area of life.
Sometimes the grind is about what you don’t do. Recognising that you’re in a "hold back" phase can be tricky, especially if you're wired to push. But the signs are usually there: you’re recovering from an injury, you’re carrying persistent fatigue, or your training progress has stalled. In these moments, success looks different.
It’s about patience, not performance. It might mean showing up and doing a scaled-back version of your usual session, focusing on quality movement instead of load, or prioritising sleep and fuelling over volume. It might mean spending a few weeks building aerobic base or reinforcing movement patterns. Doing work that feels quiet but sets the stage for a bigger breakthrough later.
There’s no instant gratification here. But there’s real growth - the kind that lasts.
So What Does Count as Hard Work?
It might be:
Pushing through a tough workout
Stopping short of the push to honour your recovery
Logging your progress even when it feels boring
Scaling back to rebuild properly
Practising the basics
Choosing food that fuels you instead of numbs you
If it’s in service of your long-term goals? It counts.
Hard work isn’t always sweaty. It isn’t always sexy. But when it’s done right, with intention, consistency, and patience, it works.
Because at the end of the day, hard work isn’t about punishment, it’s about commitment. It’s about showing up with a clear head, honouring where your body is at, and choosing the path that supports your progress, not just your pride. It’s knowing that skipping the flashy workout for some easy zone 2, or taking an extra rest day, or logging your boring sets with perfect form. That’s what builds resilience.
And if you can trust yourself to do the quiet, unglamorous work now? You’ll be capable of so much more later.