Why We Do the Hard Things…Even When We Don't Want To
There's a moment most of us know well. You glance at the whiteboard, clock the workout, and something in your gut quietly says: I don't want to do this.
Maybe it's a long, grinding row. A barbell cycling piece when your grip is already shot. Strict gymnastics work when kipping is faster and far more comfortable. A skill session on something you've been bad at for two years and, frankly, would rather avoid. Or perhaps it's one of those conditioning pieces that sits awkwardly between heavy strength and a proper sprint, the kind of effort that isn't exciting in either direction.
Here at Mvmt Hub, we programme deliberately. And part of that deliberate programming means you will regularly find yourself doing things you don't particularly enjoy. Not because we enjoy watching you suffer. But because the things you resist are almost always the things you need most — and the science backs this up more comprehensively than most people realise.
It's Not Just About Balanced Programming
Yes, a well-rounded programme needs to develop all energy systems, build capacity across different movement patterns, and address weaknesses. That's the mechanics of it. But that's actually the least interesting reason to do hard things.
The more compelling case is this: the act of doing something difficult, especially something you'd rather skip, is one of the most powerful interventions available to you for mental health, brain function, and how you navigate life outside the gym.
Let's unpack that.
Hard Things Build Mental Resilience That Transfers
Research published in Frontiers in Sports and Active Living (2023) found that community-based, high-intensity programmes like CrossFit produce measurable improvements in mental functioning. The study specifically highlighted that mental resilience training helps athletes manage stress, reduce anxiety and depressive symptoms, and maintain confidence and control under pressure, not just in training, but in life broadly. ¹
That last part matters. The stress tolerance you develop by grinding through a 1,000-metre row when your lungs are burning doesn't stay in the gym. It becomes a transferable skill, a lived experience of I was uncomfortable, I kept going, and I came out the other side. Every time you repeat that experience, you reinforce a neural pathway that says difficulty is survivable. Eventually, that pathway becomes your default response to challenge.
This is the mechanism behind what psychologists call distress tolerance, the capacity to withstand aversive psychological and physical states without avoiding or giving up. Research published in ScienceDirect (2020) found that high distress tolerance consistently predicts positive mental health outcomes, partly because it promotes more adaptive emotional regulation when stress arrives.² Training this capacity deliberately by choosing to stay in discomfort rather than escape it is exactly what hard workouts, unwanted skill sessions, and grinding cardio pieces are doing.
You Become More Optimistic Because You Have Evidence
One of the most underappreciated benefits of completing hard things is the effect on optimism.
Not abstract, feel-good optimism. Evidence-based optimism, the kind that comes from a track record of doing difficult things and surviving them.
Psychologist Albert Bandura's foundational work on self-efficacy explains this well. When people successfully complete challenging tasks, their belief in their own capability grows. And that belief directly influences how they approach future challenges, whether they try, how hard they persist, and how quickly they recover from setbacks.³ People with high self-efficacy view difficult tasks as something to master rather than threats to avoid.
A study published in ScienceDirect (2025) examining frequent CrossFit participation found significant improvements in what researchers call Psychological Capital, a composite measure of hope, self-efficacy, resilience, and optimism that predicts positive outcomes across multiple life domains, including work and general well-being.⁴ These aren't small effects on mood. They represent a measurable shift in how people relate to challenge across their whole lives.
Research from Psychological Science (Woolley & Fishbach, 2022) adds another layer: people who actively seek discomfort as a signal of growth, rather than merely tolerating it, show greater motivation and increased perceived goal achievement.⁵ That reframe is worth sitting with. The movement you hate isn't an obstacle. It's the signal that growth is happening.
Your Brain Physically Changes When You Learn Difficult Skills
Every time you work on a technically demanding skill, muscle-ups, double-unders, handstand walking, Olympic lifting, rope climbs — something is happening in your brain that goes well beyond sport.
A 2019 study in PLOS ONE found that motor skill training and acquisition induce changes in brain network structure, specifically improving transmission efficiency and strengthening connections in attention, visual, and sensorimotor networks.⁶ A 2022 study published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience confirmed that learning new motor skills dynamically changes both brain structure and function, what researchers call neuroplasticity, and that this process involves the prefrontal cortex, cerebellum, and basal ganglia: regions closely associated with decision-making, emotional regulation, and executive function.⁷
Put simply: when you work on a skill that challenges your coordination, timing, and body awareness, you are not just getting better at that skill. You are improving the hardware responsible for attention, self-regulation, and cognitive flexibility, all of which are directly relevant to mental health.
This is why we don't just load barbells. Skill work isn't decoration in our programming. It's neurological training.
High-Intensity Exercise Outperforms Medication for Depression
A comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine (Singh et al., 2023) — one of the largest of its kind — found that physical activity yields significant advantages over medication in alleviating symptoms of depression and psychological distress, with the greatest improvements observed in those who engaged in high-intensity exercise.⁸ These benefits held across diverse populations, including those with existing mental health conditions.
That is a remarkable finding. And it reinforces something we observe daily in our community: people who train consistently through hard periods. not in spite of life being difficult but as a direct response to it, tend to cope better. They sleep better. They think more clearly. They are more emotionally regulated.
The gym is not a distraction from the hard parts of life. It is a direct intervention on them.
The Community Effect: You Don't Suffer Alone
There's a reason hard things done together carry a different weight to hard things done in isolation. Research in The Sport Journal found that as CrossFit athletes became more familiar with challenging workouts and began improving, they overcame self-doubt and developed a greater sense of perceived control, a process accelerated by shared experience within a community.⁹
When you see someone else grinding through the same workout you're dreading, when you cheer them on and they cheer you on, you are reinforcing each other's belief that the hard thing is doable. That social dimension is a multiplier on every other benefit. It's why group training, at its best, produces outcomes that solitary training cannot.
So Next Time You Look at the Board and Don't Like It
That resistance you feel? That quiet reluctance? It's information. It's telling you exactly where the growth is.
At Mvmt Hub, we don't programme hard things to be difficult for its own sake. We programme them because learning to do hard things, physical things, technical things, uncomfortable things is one of the most reliable ways we know to build a more resilient, capable, and optimistic version of yourself.
The barbell doesn't know you're having a rough week. But getting under it anyway, and finishing the session, adds one more piece of evidence to the case your brain is building about who you are and what you can handle.
Do the hard thing. Especially the one you don't want to do.
Don’t Wait - Start your journey with us today!
Here at the MVMT Hub, we understand that starting your health and fitness journey may be daunting and challenging, but with the right mindset and our guidance, it can also be incredibly fun and rewarding. We will help you focus on building a strong foundation, listen to your body, and enjoy the sense of accomplishment as you progress through your fitness goals. Starting your health and fitness journey at Mvmt Hub means embarking on a path to better health and fitness with a supportive community and expert guidance. Remember, every journey starts with a single step. We’re here to take that step with you.
References
Christoff, A., Hailes, J., & Tatum, J. (2023). Influence of CrossFit and Deep End Fitness training on mental health and coping in athletes. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living. https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2023.1061492
Veilleux, J. C., et al. (2020). Perceived willpower self-efficacy fluctuates dynamically with affect and distress intolerance. Personality and Individual Differences. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110385
Bandura, A. (1994). Self-efficacy. In V. S. Ramachaudran (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Human Behaviour (Vol. 4, pp. 71–81). Academic Press.
Luthans, F., et al. (2025). CrossFit beyond the barbell: Exploring the psychological benefits for individuals and organisations. Psychology of Sport and Exercise. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2025.000299
Woolley, K., & Fishbach, A. (2022). Motivating personal growth by seeking discomfort. Psychological Science, 33(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976211044685
Chen, X., et al. (2019). Motor skill learning induces brain network plasticity: A diffusion-tensor imaging study. PLOS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0210015
Kobza, S., et al. (2022). Neuroplasticity in motor learning under variable and constant practice conditions. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2022.773730
Singh, B., et al. (2023). Effectiveness of physical activity interventions for improving depression, anxiety and distress: An overview of systematic reviews. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 57(18). https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2022-106195
Heere, E., et al. (2017). Challenge, commitment, community, and empowerment: Factors that promote the adoption of CrossFit as a training programme. The Sport Journal.
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