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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   2261 thread views

Wellness Wednesday for October 12, 2022

The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:

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Am I supposed to feel good after exercise?

People say things like "Every time I run I feel like anxiety doesn’t exist for awhile and just feel good." or "Does anyone know exactly why it feels so fucking good to lift heavy shit above your head?? I have never felt anything like it in a gym. It is THE MOST addicting feeling I’ve possibly ever had." both quotes from random reddit comments.

I've tried both running and weight lifting in the past, and never got a huge positive psychological effect. Mostly I just feel slightly content, or just plain tired. Do some people just not have a strong positive response?

I feel much better during months when I'm exercising a lot than during months when I'm not. Less tired overall, even accounting for the more-tired periods right after a workout. But that's a long-term effect, takes a week or two to kick in when my exercise schedule changes.

I feel mildly good showering off the sweat after cardio, and mildly good in general after weightlifting, but never any feeling strong enough for the possibility of it being addictive to cross my mind.

I don't feel anything from lifting or running or swimming, but I do from high intensity whole body activity shit.

Like, running just makes me tired and grumpy but doing heavy bag sprints or rock climbing at high intensity does give me a tingle.

Running is a chore for me but I still do it to warm up. But weights feel really really good for me, even while I'm doing them (Maybe I'm not doing enough?). Afterwards, I feel really good and accomplished. I even feel more attractive afterwards (like, my face), my guess is a brain chemical tricking me. As another poster mentioned, I kind of enjoy DOMS, although the very first week I ever went to the gym, the soreness was a little too much.

I find myself somewhat enjoying the sensation of DOMS after lifting. The mild pain reminds me that I did at least one constructive thing yesterday.

The actual process of exercising is just painful and unpleasant. I have never experienced “The Pump” the way Arnie talks about though. I wish lifting was an orgasmic experience.

I have the same experience. Exercise actually makes me feel very anxious, but I still do it every day. It's just a totally sucky thing that I have to get through.

I do it because I want to continue to be able to do everything else in my life for a good long time.

I feel good but also way more irritable and annoyed after doing cardio. Kind of a weird mix of feelings

Lifting on the other hand makes me feel really good only for the first few weeks, then the feeling stops or is only very mild.

Yep. Never got a genuine good feeling out of plain exercise (running, lifting etc). I just treat those things as a good time to listen a podcast episode and get my actual physical enjoyment from more competitive sports. Used to be club volleyball, lately I got into fighting sports. The joy of outplaying an opponent in a ball sport and getting celebrated for it or just plain landing some good punches and dominating a sparring partner is quite amazing.

Do some people just not have a strong positive response?

Yes. I've spent my childhood and youth hating physical exercise. Today when I go to the gym I don't get a lifter's high either. What I do get is a sense of accomplishment: the goal is in front of you, you don't need to manage other people to achieve it and you reach it in minutes.

I don't know, I'm a pretty obsessive runner and love the sport, but I don't really get the same feelings that other people describe with any regularity. I can definitely get into a meditative state, but I usually don't. I do occasionally feel the classic runners high, but I usually don't. I pretty much never suffer from the "running sucks" sort of thing that a lot of people seem to experience. The main thing I'm addicted to is the satisfaction of building and improving, especially when it's validated with actual race performance. To that end, I love hard workouts that require discipline and fitness, but not because I actually enjoy the workout - it's the satisfaction of a job well done.

Lifting always just feels like a chore that I should do. I don't mind it, I know it's very good for me, so I make sure to fit it in, but I feel nothing about it emotionally.

When I started, I got nothing out of it for quite a while other than sore. Over the course of several months as I kept lifting and running and got healthier there were substantial psychological benefits (my anxiety has been gone for years now), but it wasn't until I was really pushing myself and seeing continuous week-over-week improvements to stamina, strength, and the scale that it became an activity that felt great and that I craved more of. It may be that you need to see some results before you get those psychological benefits, or it may just be that you're not pushing yourself hard enough to get a runner's high.

Best of luck, and keep at it.

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