When was the last time you had a great workout?
You know—you felt energetic and alive?
Strong. Powerful. En fuego (On fire).
Perhaps it was after a run on the Town Lake trail; a kick butt, booty burning spin class ; a detoxifying hot yoga class; getting through a really tough WOD; an upbeat hip hop class; a nice, refreshing hike in the great outdoors…
The options are limitless.
Whatever your preferred mode of training, there is no denying that a good sweat session not only does the body good—but your mind as well.
This is called: endorphins.
Endorphins are chemicals that are able to cross through the gaps between neurons in your brain in order to pass along a message from one to the next.
When your body comes into contact with certain stimuli (like sex, food, pain or exercise—a.k.a. ‘the pain cave’), your hypothalamus calls for endorphins, and cells throughout your body that contain them answer the call.
During this process, when endorphins connect with special receptor cells (called opioid receptors, because opiates also fit them), they block the transmission of pain signals and also produce a euphoric feeling — exactly like opiates (i.e. drugs).
Endorphins take on the role as both a painkiller and “pay” for your body’s reward system. For instance, when you bump your knee or eat something with red pepper flakes, you may get a dose of endorphins to ease the pain. You may also get an endorphin boost from a nice conversation with a stranger, eating a delicious meal or…a great workout.
You’ve probably heard of the term “runner’s high,” referring to the euphoric feeling one sometimes gets when exercising.
When your body crosses over from an aerobic state to an anaerobic state, it’s suddenly operating without enough oxygen to satisfy the muscles and cells screaming out for it. This is when the “runner’s high” occurs—not necessarily just when you are running, but when you are in ‘the zone’ and getting your sweat on—whatever that looks like for you.
Yesterday, at the gym, I had a great workout—some lifting and a met-con (metabolic conditioning):
EMOM 10
3 clean & jerks
5 x 10 back-squats
5 x 5 bench press
“300” WOD (one of my fav ‘benchmarks’)
25 Pull-ups
50 Deadlifts 135/95#
50 Push-Ups
50 Box Jumps 24/20″
50 Floor Wipers 135/95#
50 Single-Arm Kettlebell Clean-and-Press 35/25#
25 Pull-Ups
Afterwards, with some sweat on the brow, it got me thinking…How amazing it is to train and workout in a way that is fun and works best for me today.
AND, how amazing it is to know my why behind why I choose to train and workout now…
(The answer? For fun!!, as well as continued strength development—from the inside out).
After all, I’ve been at the complete opposite end of the spectrum.
There was a time in my exercise journey that, to me, exercise was all about contorting, construing and chiseling my body.
Constantly at war with myself in the gym, I thought, ‘The harder I work, the more I will be…perfect, beautiful, pretty, accept myself, earn my food, able to sit with myself, at peace, and _____ — (fill in the blank).’
Working out at one time meant: working out as much as I possibly could.
If I was awake, I was thinking about it—heck even when I was asleep, I was dreaming about it—in an unhealthy way.
How could I go a little longer? Squeeze in upwards of four sessions in a day? Burn calories outside of the gym—running here and there, up and down stairs, twitching and fidgeting my legs in my seat, doing calf raises while drying my hair, crunches first thing in the morning upon rolling out of bed, etc.)?
While this ‘madness’ ended abruptly when I entered treatment, when I got out of treatment, it was up to me to determine what a new, healthy relationship with exercise looked like.
I knew, if anything, my relationship with exercise needed to look different than it had in the past.
As I have told the story before, I stumbled into an amazing community in Miami, Florida through a CrossFit Box and for the first time since youth-league basketball and soccer, I began to have fun again with exercise.
I also began to, for the first time, experience the self-confidence boost from gaining strength—and finding beauty in that strength.
I no longer aspired to be the waif or twig I had during my teens and early 20’s.
It was empowering to pull my chin over the bar during a pull-ups, back squat my body weight on a barbell, and learn how to power clean and snatch weight from the ground—even if it wasn’t that heavy.
It’s been five years now since that ‘lightbulb’ moment changed my outlook and perspective on what working out is really all about, for me—my ‘why’ now…it’s about having fun and tangibly realizing strength that I have inside of me.
I also will add a disclaimer to this: My journey and relationship with exercise has continued to evolve, as do most people’s throughout a lifetime.
For instance, perhaps you were a serious marathon runner at one time, but after years of wear and tear on your knees and hips, running is no longer an option, and you’ve taken up swimming, yoga or enjoy long hikes now.
Or, you joined the Zumba kick, or jumped on the P-90X bandwagon and did it day in and day out for a year or two before getting completely burned out, and now you prefer another at-home workout video or a local bootcamp.
Or you had a goal to compete at an elite level, but now, you train to just train and be healthy.
For myself, over the past five years, the more I began to enjoy CrossFit and be around it, there was also a time that I, too, began to believe that in order to continue to progress, that I needed to compete.
After all, that’s what everyone seemed to be gravitating towards doing?
So I began to workout with that intention—almost to the point where training seemed to become a chore again.
Skill work. Constantly trying to get stronger. Pushing myself to go ‘RX’ on workouts—and feeling defeated when I did not. Signing up for some local competitions. Trying to put on extra weight to be able to lift more weights. Etc.
But you know what?…I am NOT a competitor.
Just like I am not a fitness model, needing to be on the cover of a magazine.
I really did not enjoy competing, nor did I want to be competitor.
I 100% admire those who are—naturally born competitors…or hard working individuals who earn their ticket to be a competitor.
But for me, I really just wanted a good sweat and the self-satisfaction of developing strength over a lifetime, for myself—not to go up against anyone else, or try to be on a podium.
I still very much enjoy CrossFit today and have found an amazing community of people through it, but rather than training in a way to be someone or something I am not…I can simply have fun with my training now. I don’t have to go RX all the time. I don’t have to complete all the Regional workouts to see how I stack up. I don’t have to force myself to PR my Fran every time I do it. And while I still enjoy a good push, I ultimately know my body now, and what it can and cannot do–and I respect that.
I write this raw, and unfiltered, because I think, for many, we can fall into the ‘trap’ of doing things that we really…don’t want to do, or have to do.
It’s easy to get caught up with the Joneses, or to get down on yourself because you…
-Can’t lift a certain weight
-Or do a pullup or muscle-up
-Can’t handstand walk
-Can’t do a high box jump—or fear box jumps altogether
-Aren’t as good as “so and so”
-Can’t row or run that fast
-Etc.
Unfortunately this mindset, and this practice (constantly pushing yourself or feeling like you need to ‘keep up’) is often times how…injuries happen…or burn out happens…or disconnecting with our true abilities and our true passions happen.
About a year and a half ago, I ended up suffering from a hip injury (a stress fracture) due to overuse from too many pistols (1-legged squats) and a squat program I should have not been on. Suffice all to say, I ended up learning a great lesson through the 8-month recovery that baby took to heal…I wanted to exercise to enjoy it and to feel good–not beat myself up.
I thought: How about instead of focusing on what I can’t do…focusing instead on what I can do?
And more importantly, I also began thinking long, hard and deeply about my why behind why it is I do what I do?
I pose the same question now to you:
Is it because you are ‘going through the motions’ or because it’s what you “have” to do in order to be ______ (YOU fill in the blank now)?
Is it because it’s what you are “supposed to do” or “should do” if you want to get better?
Is it because everyone else is doing it? (like my CrossFit experience).
Whatever your journey has looked like—it shapes you, and as you go along, it helps you even more so, to define your why behind why you exercise in order to ultimately…have fun with it.
After all, the human body was made to move…and we were all meant to thrive…
Exercise in and of itself simply put helps keep our bodies and minds healthy in order to experience life to the fullest outside the gym (and conquer the world).
Why not? It’s not rocket science…