When you warm up and stretch your muscles before exercise, you’re preventing pain. You’re lowering the chances you’ll get injured. 

It’s useful to remember the purpose of preparation is to help you get ahead of pain. Your present feels ordinary, maybe even slightly boring, because your past self didn’t borrow from its future. It may have even invested time and energy to make your current self comfortable.

If relief feels great, preventing pain should feel even better. Appreciating your past actions, and imagining how your present would feel if you didn’t prepare, can give you a sense of how that feels.