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Scientists have discovered why running makes you happy
- phaed 11y agoOpen in incognito window.
- INTPenis 11y agoWhat about this http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14625449 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14625449 ... and this http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22442371 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22442371 ?
- thaumasiotes 11y agorelated (ok, not actually related, but funny): http://www.savagechickens.com/2008/04/endorphins.html http://www.savagechickens.com/2008/04/endorphins.html
- gauravagarwalr 11y ago"Your ad blocker is on." No I do not have a adblock installed. I have a hosts file which removes the worst tracking sites over the internet. On top of this, they have a Subscribe wall. Who exactly runs washingtonpost.com? And why do they need to get personal with me? Moreover is the content going to add to anything more than we know about endorphins all ready?
- 0942v8653 11y agoYou should get an adblocker then. uBlock Origin blocks all the stuff you were complaining about for me, and you should be able to use it in addition to the hosts file (or put the hosts file directly into it as a filter).
- scrollaway 11y agoAnd they break selection. Urgh.
- gorhill 11y agoThis can be fixed by blocking inline-script.
- DanBC 11y ago> Moreover is the content going to add to anything more than we know about endorphins all ready? We know that you can give people endorphin blockers before they exercise and they still report feeling better after exercise. This article is about leptin, not about endorphins.
- gyardley 11y agoAd blocker blocking is becoming increasingly common. I use the Stylebot extension to strip away this sort of cruft on sites I visit frequently - it's almost always just setting 'display: none;' on a couple of elements.
- mirkules 11y agoAnother offender is Redfin. I'm running uBlock, and the site loads totally fine with no notifications about adblockers, but the search button is grayed out. Took me a while to figure it out
- matthewmacleod 11y agoMoreover is the content going to add to anything more than we know about endorphins all ready? Maybe you'll need to quit complaining and read the article to find out.
- sqldba 11y agoWondering if walking or other exercise triggers the same thing then.
- elorant 11y agoIt does for me. But I've noticed that it only works if I go for a walk early in the morning. There is a tranquility in the morning which I can't find in any other time during the day.
- tonyedgecombe 11y agoI find where I walk makes a big difference, it's much better if I can avoid any traffic.
- jimhefferon 11y agoSounds pretty thin.
- Gravityloss 11y ago"It's not all in your mind - it's leptin." I sense Descartes here.
- adynatos 11y agoi thought it was because of elevated anandamide levels
- jtaylor100 11y agoArticles that have titles like "Scientists have proven that ___ will make your life perfect" I find are often misleading.
- orthoganol 11y agoFor those with an ad blocker, just click the 'x' to stop loading the page before it redirects and you can read the article.
- downandout 11y agoInterestingly, I clicked over from a Google search for the title, and got an interstitial demanding my email that I could not dismiss. I am pretty sure that's a violation of Google's cloaking rules since there is no way to dismiss it. Here's hoping they get deindexed or at least penalized, but I won't hold my breath.
- flavor8 11y agoYou can inspect element and hide the popover div. There's probably an extension out there that does this automatically.
- wodenokoto 11y agoOr if you are on Firefox or Safari, click the "reader mode" before you get redirected. When available it is usually better than the adblocked verison.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- bitL 11y agoLong-distance running makes me feel absolutely horrible, with Tabata 4 minute sprints after 3 minutes I can't feel my legs anymore and I can sleep after drinking 5 cups of strong coffee - does it mean my body is wrong or another scientific article is? I do running because my body needs it but hate it profoundly, and together with long cold showers and weightlifting it's about training my will to overcome unpleasantness to the point of torture. Only once in my life I got runner's high, and it wasn't anything special. On the other hand, how to change your body to get the leptin response mentioned in the article? If it is genetic, am I out of luck and these kinds of exercise will make me feel horrible all the time?
- plg 11y agoI used to exercise regularly like this (not running but another sport) and recently I had to stop cold turkey for a variety of reasons. Boy do I feel better. I sleep better. My mood is better. I don't hurt all the time. I eat more moderately. I lost weight (some muscle no doubt). tldr I think I must have been overdoing it. It makes me wonder in this culture of exercise we live in, how many people end up not doing any exercise because they think it's all or nothing, full-on torture vs couch potato.
- venomsnake 11y agoAnecdotally I have observed that there are two groups of people. Runners and lifters. The one love all kinds of explosive strength exercises, the other low intensity high volume. Sprinters are lifters btw.
- js2 11y agoMaybe influenced by person's proportion of fast-twitch vs slow-twitch muscle fibers?
- sleazebreeze 11y agoAs a lifelong exerciser, this squares with my observations as well. I'd include biking in the running category too. Personally, I get no pleasure from long runs and find them to be incredibly painful and hard to recover from. Whereas being under a barbell in a squat is my happy place.
- ck2 11y agoUm, we've known about running endorphines for decades? first result for google is eight years ago http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/health/nutrition/27best.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/health/nutrition/27best.ht... scientific studies from 1996 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC474733/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC474733/
- xlm1717 11y agoWell, now instead of endorphins, they can say leptins.
- JacobAldridge 11y agoYet another tale of mice and assumptions, as best I can make out. Of course, I'm one of those runners who never gets this mythical (to me) high - even when I was super active (3 runs of about an hour each per week) I hated doing it (tldr - basic running is cheap exercise). I know people who love to run and talk about the high because they take it for granted all runners have it. Now they can blame my leptin levels!
- Squarel 11y agoI always put it down to my dopamine responses, as I don't get the same feeling from eating, or any of the other well known things that elicit a dopamine release, and assumed excercise was the same thing.
- JacobAldridge 11y agoThere's an interesting chain of thought there - I love a good sugar or caffeine rush, but find eating meals to be an annoying chore in my daily life.
- bane 11y agoI hate running so much that, when I was younger and had to choose a more agreeable form of fitness, I took up Chinese Kickboxing (Sanda). Yes, I prefer getting kicked in the face to running, about the most intolerable form of exercise I know. I wish I could get that joy from running, but my entire body hurts, from the inside-out, when I do it. It made it hard to get good cardio training when I was training for a fight, I usually substituted lots and lots of swimming, which I find far more enjoyable and seems to do a better job of training cardio without injuring joints you'll need later.
- mistersquid 11y agoI love running and agree swimming is better for the joints, but the cardio workout I get from swimming is not comparable to what I get from running. While I'm a very good swimmer, it's harder for me to reach the same level of exercise intensity in water versus on land. With the recent biking renaissance here in the US (which means easy availability of high-quality parts and more widely-adopted standards for equipment) and due to my consistently sustaining muscle injuries after 30 years of running, I've turned to biking to maintain cardio. Cycling is much easier on the joints and easier (for a runner like me) to achieve and maintain intensity, though it does have its hazards. (Accidents will happen.) Back on topic, I don't get the same kind of "high" biking as I do running. The biking high feels more adrenaline-based, laced as it is with anxiety, aggressiveness, and irritability. Running for me induces a more blissful harmonious state of consciousness than does cycling. YMMV
- dorfsmay 11y agoI'm another person who hates running but do it moderately as it's a very efficient form of exercise. I also do intermittent fasting, which also change you leptin levels. One thing I've noticed is that I have less hunger pangs when fasting when I can do a run in the middle of the day. Also, I find it easier to find motivation to exercise when fasted than not. As a matter of fact, I only run on days I fast these days. There was another article earlier this week about this study which says exactly that and theorise that it might be an evolutionary thing, if you're skinny and hungry, you need to hunt, if you're satieted and fat, you're OK with just napping for a while. *edit: Adding the article https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.science-et-vie.com%2F2015%2F09%2Fle-plaisir-qui-suit-une-bonne-course-depend-de-la-satiete%2F https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&tl=en&u=h...
- yodsanklai 11y ago> I'm another person who hates running but do it moderately as it's a very efficient form of exercise Interesting point of view! Many people run despite the harm it may cause (esp. to their knees and back) because they love to run. But if you remove enjoyment out of the equation, I assume there are other forms of exercises that are safer and as "efficient" as running.
- fsiefken 11y agoThat's precisely why I took up swimming to work monofinning recently. Cycling and nordic walking is also better for the joints.
- fsiefken 11y agoThat's precisely why I took up swimming to work monofinning recently. Cycling and nordic walking is also better for the joints.
- dorfsmay 11y agoEverything about running is efficient: - you can't cheat and ignore it, you run or you walk (you can coast while biking, you can swim slowly, etc...) - you can open your door and star running. Mist other sports, you need to go somewhere before you start doing the sport (swimming pool, mountain, dojo, etc...) - no other sport I have done build cardio in a few weeks like running does. Keep in mind that I don't try to promote running, I literally hate it, I just enjoy the results given the low time investment.
- kstenerud 11y agoI hate running. I've always hated running. I run 6 miles once a week, and I listen to music just to distract myself from how godawful boring it is. But I have to keep doing it or else I'll run out of steam halfway through a boxing round and get my ass handed to me.
- tomcam 11y agoNot being funny, but no form of cardio makes me happy. I always feel way worse afterwards. I have never experienced any kind of endorphin high that I know of from exercise.
- z3t4 11y agoIf you do not like "running" you could try sprinting instead! Or lifting weights. I hate running, but love sprinting. Sure it feels nice when you jog and it feels like you could go on for hours, but compare that to the "pump" witch feels like an orgasm.