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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Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.
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Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.
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Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.
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Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).
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Notes -
Has anyone here actually experienced the alleged improvement in mood after exercise? How long did it take you?
Cause I'm going to the gym again (nothing serious; half an hour of cardio a day) for a couple of weeks and I'm wondering if this is a false bag of goods or if there's some threshold.
I have, but not always. As someone else noted, it comes after strenuous exercise for me too. I've done all sorts of sports and find running provides this wffevt most often and most consistently. I have also done road and gravel riding - road riding does if it's intense, gravel same. Two key points here is this idea of intensity, and the idea of mood. If I have lots on my mind and run solidly for 30 mins, I return home in a much better place. An intense ride takes longer and I find I often ruminate on the bike and my mood isn't improved - riding intensely on the bike is harder and more dangerous than running, and has a higher cognitive load of its own. Another consideration is whether you're fit enough to have an intense and enjoyable workout that can improve mood. I'm fitter than average and have been for years, and can't remember being unfit. I don't know what it's like to try intense exercise for mood improvement when you're not especially fit - the sensations may be more about struggle and 'is this worth it' than wow, I feel great. I don't know. But when you're fit and can push yourself, it feels like exercise helps with me; or, at the least, knowing you can train purposefully and achieve something difficult lifts the mood.
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