31–40 of 82 posts
I don't remember ever feeling "hapiness" after doing exercise. All that's left after it it's the overwhelming feeling of being tired.
In my experience, it takes a week or three of keeping to the schedule, and then I start noticing that I'm just really upbeat & feel great, even though I'm sore.
Endorphins? Where's the link to the science? http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-243-297--1102-... quote: "I believe this endorphin in runners is a total fantasy in the pop culture," said psychobiologist Huda Akil, Ph.D., from the University of Michigan. The endorphin theory had several problems, the most serious being that endorphins are too large to pass through the blood-brain barrier that border-patrols…
Regarding the endorphin hypothesis, there's another parallel hypothesis which is that the good feelings of exercise are just a symptom of oxygen deprivation in the brain:
Altitude-chamber tests have shown that as oxygen deprivation
increases, some victims experience a sense of increasing
well-being, even euphoria, while they’re losing the ability
to function in a thoughtful, coordinated manner.
> If you start exercising, your brain recognizes this as a moment of stress. As your heart pressure increases, the brain thinks you are either fighting the enemy or fleeing from it. That's exaggerated. It's simply a reaction to increased level of effort. It's not always a full-fledged fight-or-flight response, unless it's a quite strenuous type of exercise. > The first 20 minutes of moving around, if someone has been…
>> all of those things come in in the first 20 minutes of being active. > Makes sense Does it? I'd say the last twenty minutes of exercise is what counts - it's the difficult part.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
My wife is obsessed with Fitocracy. She hates missing a workout, and, because of her, I consistently go to the gym, too.
Good for you?
If your argument is that the comment didn't add much to the discussion, I'd reply that yours added even less.
Take note startups -- find a way to put this in a pill and you can make billions of dollars. Yeah, exercise is free but only if your time has no value.
The book Spark by John Ratey is a decent read for anyone who wants to go more in-depth on this topic. The big idea that Ratey tries to get across is a reframing of exercise as something that is essential to mental health, with positive physical side-effects. There's been a lot of work recently tying exercise to increased neuroplatisity that's covered as well.
I like this reframing. I've used it as my primary motivator for engaging in aerobic exercise. I used to struggle to jog a mile at a slow pace, now I'm training for a marathon.
However, the mental benefits are key. So the reframing matters to me. If the purpose of cardiovascular exercise was just to run a marathon, it'd be a waste.
Interesting that very few of these life hacking blog posts attempt to draw a distinction between different types of exercise. A marathon (or training for one) is a very different form of stress to a low-rep high-intensity power or oly lifting session, and I would expect their neurological effects to be miles apart. Regarding the endorphin hypothesis, there's another parallel hypothesis which is that the good feelings…
Take note startups -- find a way to put this in a pill and you can make billions of dollars. Yeah, exercise is free but only if your time has no value.
My quality of life and health is much better due to regular exercise -- I don't think I could afford to not workout. It definitely has a positive impact on my business relationships as well as my motivation, and saves me a ton in healthcare expenses.