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Homing in on the Source of Runner’s High
- Synaesthesia 11y agoWhen withdrawing from weed I found one of the only effective substitutes is exercise, really makes me feel the same way.
- saiya-jin 11y agoHow much did you smoke when you decided to cut it? I find the extra creativity, and sometimes vastly different viewpoint on many matters in life (probably all of them) is invaluable. Another thing is (in some circumstances) almost constant stream of out-of-blue ideas, solutions to situations/problems etc coming from subconsciousness. In life as usual, these are much more scarce. Some of best ideas/decisions in my life came from those places, often Inception style (you get some basic idea, and explore more and more after it). This fades away significantly if I smoke often and comes back in full strength when having a week or two breaks in between. working out feels great, the harder the better (well till certain breaking point), but mentally those states are worlds apart, something around clarity vs expanded consiousness. If I could cut the smoking part (don't smoke cigarettes/tobacco since that's a net lose for consumer on many levels), and have something like eye drops that would be something.
- Synaesthesia 11y agoI still do, and vaporize a lot(Magic Flight Launch Box FTW). Too much probably but it's at least not that harmful! Pretty much daily/all the time. I agree with all your points.
- tetraodonpuffer 11y agoI bike commute to work for a significant amount of time (about 1:15 each way) and most days I get out-of-the-blue ideas and solutions to situations/problems starting usually around 45 minutes in. It also often happens that I get a shift of perspective/viewpoint on something that is affecting me. If you are not getting any of this when working out may I suggest going longer? After all for most people the "runner's high" doesn't really happen unless you run for a significant amount of time (personally, same as for riding, it usually takes at least 45 minutes before it starts, for other people I know even an hour) I have to say that when I can't ride to work but have to take transit (when it's icy out) I am definitely less effective due to the lack of this 2x/day burst of additional creativity (which is helpful on the way back too, get home, fire off emails and note some plans for the next day). Note I have never taken drugs so I can't offer any comparisons.
- saiya-jin 11y agoThat might be partly explained by it, my gym sessions/interval runs don't last more than 30-35 minutes. But I also do plenty of stuff in mountains - hikes, alpinism, ski touring, climbing etc. These are 3-10 hours activities (apart from short&intense burst while climbing), similar to slow running (sometimes actually pretty intense). These could be classified as some sort of "high", but more in a sense of euphory, joy of being in nature, seeing some amazing places, random meetings with animals etc. But nothing comparable to other "high" states from drugs. Just 2 very different worlds, both amazing but for different reasons.
- tetraodonpuffer 11y agogym does not do it for me at all, as it's not really aerobic, and hiking in general requires too much brain power figuring out where to put your feet to allow me to get in the flow state plus in general it's not intense enough for long enough. For me it really seems like working out at a high enough level that you'd have to stop after 1:30 or so that does it, if I have longer rides (I have ridden up to 5 hours) it does not seem to be hard enough, while if you go shorter it's too hard, there just seems to be something about the hard-but-manageable-effort that does it for some reason Same deal with running, when I was marathon training and running for 2+ hours it did not happen as often as it did when I was half-marathon training and I was focusing on 1-1:30 workouts
- moron4hire 11y agoI have never experienced it. Even when I was very physically fit (I was a martial arts instructor in college), I never got any pleasurable sort of feeling from working out. I enjoyed the activity itself, but the end result was always exhaustion and a vaguely nauseous feeling. Considering other things that are supposed to make you feel "high, aka good" (like the Vicodin I had been prescribed when I got my wisdom teeth forcibly removed from my skull) also only seem to make me feel generally nauseous, I'm guessing this is just me in general.
- emddudley 11y agoI have only experienced it once in my life, so I consider people who feel it regularly to be pretty lucky. I would love to have more motivation and reward in exercise. As it stands exercise is a tedious chore for me.
- moron4hire 11y agoMy thought process during running: Oh great, let's stare at the ground for the next hour. Let's trod the same ground, day after day. Yep, that pile of cigarette butts is still there. Oh look, the street cleaning crew missed that weird children's doll in the gutter again. This is so much fun. Let's do this for the rest of our lives.
- sritchie 11y agoThat sounds like you're using some disgusting city block as a treadmill. Check out Trailporn for some alternative venues: http://www.trailporn.com/ http://www.trailporn.com/
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- fdej 11y agoSome of us need would need to run for an hour just to get away from the city blocks. Well, I'm currently fortunate enough to have a park just nearby, though it's a rather small and boring park... nothing like living next door to a vast forest full of trails (as I did when growing up).
- kstenerud 11y agoHuh. This would certainly explain a lot. I can't get high from cannabis, and I've never ever gotten a runner's high despite doing a weekly 6 mile run for the past 3 years and training hard for boxing.
- chipgap98 11y agoI've only hit runners highs on much longer runs. Like 10-15 miles. Totally anecdotal, but you might need to try going further. Also, what do you mean you can't get high from cannabis?
- realquick81 11y agoThat usually means they don't understand how to use their diaphragm to suck the smoke into their lungs. They suck it into their mouth and then blow it.
- kstenerud 11y agoI mean that I've tried repeatedly, watched everyone else get baked on half the dose I was taking (deep, and holding in until I absolutely needed to breathe), and felt absolutely nothing except that nasty aftertaste. Running itself is pretty damn boring, which makes it hard to do it for more than an hour. It is nice to get outside, though.
- deveac 11y agoI've never gotten "runner's high" either, and I've definitely ran further and longer than than what is required to achieve it according to my runner friends (8 miles). Mostly running is just a mix of pain and boredom for me to the point where I simply cannot bear it. The only way I can run is if there is a goal/agenda of some sort...like playing Soccer for instance.
- jobu 11y agoI definitely get a high from exercise - lifting weights as well as running. Exercise also tends to increase my appetite, especially when lifting weights. I wonder if this is related to the endocannabinoids.
- js2 11y agoOne possible if slightly disheartening lesson of the study could be, in fact, that we may need to cover considerable mileage in order to experience a runner’s high; the mice in the study, small as they are, averaged more than three miles every day on their wheels. I'm on track for 3000 miles this year. I ran over 2000 miles last year. My shortest run in the last few months is 4 miles, and that's on days when I double with a 6 mile run. I've raced almost a dozen marathons and I run the half-marathon distance a couple times a week. So I think it's fair to say that I "cover considerable mileage." This isn't all just slow miles either. As any runner trying to improve, I also run intervals of varying distances and tempos (where you run about as fast as you could race for an hour, but for about 30-45 minutes). So I enjoy running. There are runs where I'm relaxed and in the groove and the miles just click by. But that's just an enjoyable experiece, like relaxing at the beach. It's nothing like the high from smoking marijuana. Or the exhileration from something like sky diving that first time. Or post-orgasm bliss. I've also spoken with a few ultra-marathoners, runners that cover 50-100 miles or run for 24 hours straight. None of us have experienced a "high" from running. Have we all been duped? Maybe we're all expecting the wrong thing? I'm envious of those mice... :-)
- tatx 11y agoI only started running regularly a year back, and I certainly feel something like a long-drawn low-ebbing pleasant kinda 'high' after a run. I also have double the energy now-a-days and am twice as productive since I started running. Concentration has improved along with temperament. I am in my mid-thirties though and I can't recollect having run more than a mile before in my life. Maybe I will get used to this high and stop feeling the difference. Maybe I am feeling the kick because it is novel to me. But yes, it is nothing like the high you get from smoking marijuana :)
- roymurdock 11y agoStrange...I do 6-8 mile runs 3 times a week, so I'm by no means a high-mileage runner. I find that I get a high around on around 1/4 of my runs, usually around the 4-5 mile mark. It starts out with a cool rush of euphoria felt in the head and behind the eyes, which quickly spreads to the extremities and blankets any perpetual pain/discomfort, replacing it with a weightlessness, like every tendon and muscle in your body has been renewed. It's a pure, cool, iron-like high that allows me to cut 30-60 seconds off the next 1-2 miles once it kicks in. I don't think it's a distance thing - it's more of a pushing yourself to the point where your brain feels the need to intervene. I expect that if I had a disciplined training schedule and ran long distances regularly, my brain would get used to the idea of running and stop getting me high. I also lift weights 3 times a week, but I never experience a high while deadlifting, bench pressing, running sleds, etc. I'm fairly certain it has to be biking/running where you have no rest in between sets in order for your brain to flip out and turn on whatever chemical switch it is that produces the effect.
- uptownJimmy 11y agoI run 3-4 miles every morning, before work. My before-and-after is pretty drastic, which is why I run every morning. So I say without ambiguity: I defnitely get runner's high. It changes my personality and my "feeling tone" significantly.
- Roodgorf 11y agoThis is pretty irrelevant to the actual conversation but, it's honing isn't it? Have I been saying it wrong this whole time?
- Glide 11y agoHone in is so common that it's now listed. To hone is to sharpen or to perfect. You can hone a blade. Home in is the phrase that has more widespread use. A missile homes in. It probably has roots to do with homing pigeons.
- Roodgorf 11y agoAh, interesting, thank you. I always thought that it should be home, but heard it more often as hone, so I figured there must be some etymological history I was unaware of. Apparently I just had a bad sample set.