Eli5: if I get into a martial art and every time I suffer the same beating and over the time ir hurts less. Am I becoming more hardened or losing pain receptor?

Question

Eli5: if I get into a martial art and every time I suffer the same beating and over the time ir hurts less. Am I becoming more hardened or losing pain receptor?

In: 8

Answer 1

Honestly, mostly the latter if at all. But what you are really training in martial arts is to endure the pain and not care so much. A huge part of the sensation of pain is the shock. If you are used to the pain, the shock isn’t so bad anymore. It will trigger your fight or flight response less, and you will keep more of a level head. But getting denser bone, for instance, doesn’t reduce the number of pain receptors, only actual damage to the pain receptors will.