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> There is something about tackling things you DON'T want to do, and getting satisfaction from having accomplished doing it. It's even better than that with re
by mettamage 7y ago
> There is something about tackling things you DON'T want to do, and getting satisfaction from having accomplished doing it.
It's even better than that with regards to exercise. I've been forced to ski by my girlfriend. I've hated it for the first 5 days, I was terrified for my life, literally. I wrote a 10 page document on how not to die since my braking and turning weren't really reliable.
Yet, every evening, despite having some muscle fatigue. I felt more in touch with my body than ever. I was more flexible, more alert and quicker in my body movements. This made me feel happier.
I've also noticed the same thing with cycling vs. going with the metro to work (I'm in Amsterdam, no excuse to not cycle). I never think about cycling in terms of fun or not fun. But I noticed a marked difference in my mood while I arrived at work if I'd be going with the metro.
There's also neurological evidence for this: exercise makes us feel better.
So I want to extend your claim to: if you exercise in a reasonable fashion, you are biologically bound to feel better afterwards. It doesn't matter how you felt about it before or what your opinions of the exercise are.
One tip to get a bit easier into it: always do a warmup with an exercise that you don't hate. For me that'd be running.
- arethuza 7y ago"I was terrified for my life" I managed to give myself quite a scare in the Scottish mountains on Saturday - have felt distinctly more focused and calmer since then. I wonder if getting an occasional scare might not actually be a good thing....
- cbanek 7y agoI agree with the occasional scare gets you going. People are built to deal with that scare in an evolutionary sense. The change in brain chemistry to get you into flight or fight can really alter your perspective (where perspective is pretty much just brain chemistry + a little bit of experience). I think fight club called it a "near life experience." Other examples of changing perspective via brain chemistry recently talked about are magic mushrooms, which really do help lift depression, if only for a while before the brain has a chance to settle into its old patterns. Exercise of course, also changes the chemistry, but I think it is in a less extreme (and more reproducible) way than a good scare (even if what scares you is some kind of hallucinated dragon).
- olaf 7y agoI see a bike much more than a metro (passengers have almost no control) as a 'freedom-' (you can ride wherever you want) and an 'expression-of-my-will-' (when to ride and where to ride to) device. It's not only the benefit of physical exercise which often makes riding a bike more enjoyable.
- bluedevil2k 7y agoExercise, especially weight lifting and HIIT, raises testosterone levels naturally in the body which will have a definite impact on your confidence and self-esteem levels. Even further, add a good diet and try to lose fat, and you'll get the added benefit of having less of the testosterone convert to estrogen and more converting to DHT, which is the "feel good" androgen.
- sizzle 7y agoDHT accelerates male pattern baldness I believe? If you inherited genetic mpb genes and are susceptible to hairloss in crown area.
- cbluth 7y agoI used to drive to work/school my whole life, choosing to ride a bike also meant choosing to take a good chance of dying on the road. I then purchased a motorcycle, and I thought things would change, but it didn't. Even on a motorcycle, people would run me into ditches without looking and carry on their busy way without a notice or a bother. So I got a loud horn and loud pipes, and things improved a little. I sold my vehicles and moved to a biking city, where my main method of transportation is biking. I've been here for less than two years, and I'm in the best shape of my life, mentally and physically.