According to Wikipedia, The expression 'blood, sweat and tears' is usually said to have been coined by Sir Winston Churchill in his famous "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat" speech in 1940, when he warned the British people of the hardships to come in fighting WWII.
More recently and in my line of work, this expression has often been jokingly used to describe effort that is required to endure an hour long training session or workout. While I don't prefer that my clients lose blood during a training session, I do get the opportunity to see my clients sweat most the time and be brought to tears some of the time.
You see, I ask people to do things they would not normally do on their own. I also push people to go beyond their comfort. I do this not only because I'm passionate about exercise and overall health but because I know that as human beings, we can learn, grow and accomplish more when we do what is oftentimes hard and uncomfortable. Good things come from hardship.
hardship (noun)
1.a condition that is difficult to endure; suffering; deprivation; oppression.
2.an instance or cause of this; something hard to bear, as a deprivation, lack of comfort, or constant toil or danger.
Over my 15 years in the fitness industry, I have witnessed bucketfuls of sweat. Sweat is expected. I remember teaching kickboxing classes to large groups of people where so much sweat fell to the ground that towels were required to wipe the floors during the class in an effort to prevent slipping!
Over the past 5 years, as a Personal Trainer, I've seen even more sweat but also I see tears. I'm often told that my training sessions are therapeutic. One client told me that coming to train was almost as beneficial as seeing her therapist. Clients often come to me with the weight of life and yet I still push them deeper, further and usually into a place of real discomfort. Occasionally clients feel safe enough to just let go and let tears come. Tears usually express deep, raw, real emotion and because life can be challenging and messy, hardships are a very real reality for many people. For me, training is so much more than making my clients squat low and push up. I get to look my clients in the eyes, listen and in the most gentle way say, "keep moving forward" and that my friends is enough to bring me to tears.
Let me know if you are interested in sweating with me! I promise tears are not required. However, if you do tear up, I will listen.