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What happens to our brains when we exercise and how it makes us happier

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Re: What happens to our brains when we exercise and how it makes us happier

#61

Post by stdbrouw »

egonschiele wrote: post #52

After spending a couple of years exercising on and off and never really getting these gains, I have finally gotten into a routine where I exercise at least 3 times a week. I've been doing this for more than a year. Here's what I've learned from that experience: 1. Start small. It's much easier to talk yourself into exercising for 10 minutes 3 days a week. 2. Exercise at home. I hated going to a gym so I never did it.…

Agree on all points, though I think there's something to be said for 10 minutes 7 days a week – routine is really important. But having a yoga mat, balance ball and some weights at home really helps on rainy days, and making sure you enjoy your workouts rather than dreading them sounds so obvious, but it feels like most of us have been indoctrinated with the idea it's something we have to suffer through.

Re: What happens to our brains when we exercise and how it makes us happier

#62

Post by brianmwang »

ZanderEarth32 wrote: post #41
measuredincm wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tracking your workouts is important for debugging later - if you're not getting the results you want, how can you figure out the issue if you don't know what you've been doing? If your goal is "general health" and you're doing okay, you're lucky (or you should set harder / more specific goals!) But as an example, I thought I was eating well, but when I started tracking my calories for a few months, I realized I had u…

I am not familiar with Fitocracy but it seems to be getting much love here. Part of my dislike for tracking and measuring fitness might come from my experience with cumbersome apps that make the process a pain. I used Fitness Buddy for a period, and found it way to complicated and in-depth to make tracking how much weight I lifted and the reps quickly between exercises. I'll give Fitocracy a shot, and see if I change…

Hi, one of the cofounders behind Fitocracy here.

While much of the discussion here is focused on tracking activity, I want to mention that we at Fitocracy consider tracking secondary to the social experience the app and site provide. We believe that the key to long term success isn't about numbers on a screen but rather, making fitness a part of your identity and every day life through spending time with people and communities just like you. I highly recommend you check out the social aspects of the experience if you download the app :)

Re: What happens to our brains when we exercise and how it makes us happier

#63

Post by innguest »

sp332 wrote: post #58
ZanderEarth32 wrote: post #8

Good post, but I think there is too much emphasis in general on tracking and logging workouts. I find the whole tracking and logging weights, reps and feelings while working out to be daunting and pointless. Maybe it's because I am not a "I'm going to start working out and dieting" type person, rather I just live a healthy lifestyle by design. I don't "diet", I just try to eat healthy in general. I don't have a "work…

Simple logging could be part of a "Don't Break the Chain" motivational technique. http://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-se...

Which is really an example of gamification. Indeed, the "chain" can be seen as a progress bar that you get to fill each day you work at something. Really cool.

Re: What happens to our brains when we exercise and how it makes us happier

#66

Post by bduerst »

zacharyvoase wrote: post #34

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…

Sounds like an alcohol buzz.

Re: What happens to our brains when we exercise and how it makes us happier

#67

Post by bduerst »

taroth wrote: post #32
bazzargh wrote: post #17

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…

Interesting. Huda Akil is no obscure quack. http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&q=Huda+Akil&...

Could be more than one person with that name.

Re: What happens to our brains when we exercise and how it makes us happier

#68

Post by dredmorbius »

nodata wrote: post #6
Florin_Andrei wrote: post #3

> 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.

It depends on the exercise modality.

If you're doing cardio for VO2 max or endurance training, end-of-set effort generally counts for more (though a proper warm-up sets you up for success).

For skill activities, cumulative experience matters, but form breakdown with fatigue limits single-session gains. Going flat-out all the time isn't beneficial.

For weight training, hypertrophy (size/mass increase) seems to be based on time-under-tension and total volume (so that last set matters), while strength and power training rely on motor-unit recruitment and/or speed, both of which are maximized when you're relatively fresh.

Even for hypertrophy and endurance, there are diminishing returns to additional sets. Somewhere between 3-5 sets for a given exercise and you're not going to see much additional advantage. A training session may include other movements to stimulate muscle from different angles, at different ranges of motion, or independently of other synergist/agonist muscles.

The article is discussing one aspect of one form of exercise. The conclusions it reaches (happiness / mood influences of cardio) aren't generalizeable to either all effects or all forms of exercise.

Re: What happens to our brains when we exercise and how it makes us happier

#69

Post by graeme »

ZanderEarth32 wrote: post #41
measuredincm wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tracking your workouts is important for debugging later - if you're not getting the results you want, how can you figure out the issue if you don't know what you've been doing? If your goal is "general health" and you're doing okay, you're lucky (or you should set harder / more specific goals!) But as an example, I thought I was eating well, but when I started tracking my calories for a few months, I realized I had u…

I am not familiar with Fitocracy but it seems to be getting much love here. Part of my dislike for tracking and measuring fitness might come from my experience with cumbersome apps that make the process a pain. I used Fitness Buddy for a period, and found it way to complicated and in-depth to make tracking how much weight I lifted and the reps quickly between exercises. I'll give Fitocracy a shot, and see if I change…

I just carry a small notebook with me to the gym. I note the reps and weight, and any subjective notes about what worked, what didn't, and what to aim for next time.

Takes a few seconds to fill out in between reps.

I'm sure there are useful, simple apps, but you don't need an app to track.

As others mentioned, tracking lets you make sure you're increasing your lifts. I never progressed consistently until I started tracking, and slightly increasing each time.

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