# Does exercise feel physically good to you?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-exercise-feel-physically-good-to-you/487283
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [February 24, 2009, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-exercise-feel-physically-good-to-you/487283 "2009-02-24T21:58:15Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2009, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-exercise-feel-physically-good-to-you/487283/1 "2009-02-24T21:58:15Z")
In the thread [Why Are We So Fat?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=507678) the question of exercise and how much it hurts/feels good is raised.
> [@Why Are We So Fat?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-so-fat/486917/46):
>
> Well, they kind of already have something like that. If it’s actually painful to work out, it’s probably because you’re not in good shape. Eventually it’ll stop hurting. And when the endorphins kick in, it does feel good. (Well, for some–I really feel good during/after exercise to the point where I feel bad if I DON’T go, but a lot of people say they don’t feel it.)
> [@Why Are We So Fat?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-so-fat/486917/47):
>
> Thank you for acknowledging that exercise doesn’t feel good for all of us. I’ve never felt anything other than tired, sweaty (ick! I hate being sweaty!), bored, or sore while exercising.
So this made me wonder how many of us feel the “exercise high” and how many just feel sore or uncomfortable. When I first started running, years ago, it just felt kind of gross at first, but even in the early days, right afterward, I’d feel pretty good. Now the more I do it, the better I feel, and I even feel gross or weird if I skip too many days in between.
I wouldn’t really describe it as a runner’s high, just a general feeling good after I run that lasts for most of the rest of the day. And I’d feel really awful if someone told me I could never run again. It sounds cheesy but it really is a natural high for me.
And you, dopers?
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### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2009, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-exercise-feel-physically-good-to-you/487283/2 "2009-02-24T22:02:11Z")
I am a gigantic fatass (but less fat than I used to be.) I feel great after my cardio workout. Getting the blood pumping fast all over my body is invigorating. At the same time, in the midst of the workout itself, I usually opine to myself, “Jesus fucking Christ on a unicycle, this is hard.”
I use an iPod to avoid boredom. I find that some classic metal and annoying house music lets me take my mind off the task.
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### Author:  [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2009, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-exercise-feel-physically-good-to-you/487283/3 "2009-02-24T22:02:12Z")
No, working out is unpleasant for me. I just end up sore with no sort of endorphin rush to compensate. Worse yet is that exercise makes me HUNGRY. I want to eat everything that ever was food after a hard work out, which kind of goes against the whole point of the exercise. I’ve learned that I need to build the physical activity into my day so that I can focus on the fact that I am walking to work or wandering a museum or whatever and not focus on the fact that exercise sucks donkey balls.
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### Author:  [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2009, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-exercise-feel-physically-good-to-you/487283/4 "2009-02-24T22:05:35Z")
I’ve been in between really good shape and slightly bad shape for my entire adult life, i’ve played basketball, ran, swam, lifted weights and done cardio at various points in time. I’ve NEVER felt good after a workout, not when i was in great shape and not when i was in bad shape. The usual results are soreness followed by sticky sweatiness and mild hunger.
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### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2009, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-exercise-feel-physically-good-to-you/487283/5 "2009-02-24T22:05:47Z")
During can be anything from “ouch, this sucks” to “hey, this doesn’t suck all that much.” Rarely (but occasionally) does it feel good. Afterwards, it almost always feels great.
The exception is the first few times I tried a new weight routine. I felt like shit for days after. Once I got used to it, then I felt good after.
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### Author:  [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_wind_of_my_soul)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2009, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-exercise-feel-physically-good-to-you/487283/6 "2009-02-24T22:08:13Z")
The question, for me, is whether you’re talking about during your work out or afterwards. No, I don’t enjoy gasping for breath as I squat; I don’t enjoy that warm feeling I get in my shoulders after I’ve just done a set of shoulder lifts; I don’t enjoy when my spotter has to step in because my muscles are too exhausted to complete another rep.
But afterwards? I feel energized and much more ready to face the day. (And there’s no quantifying how awesome it feels to get to say that you’re a girl that can do 13 pull-ups.)
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### Author:  [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2009, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-exercise-feel-physically-good-to-you/487283/7 "2009-02-24T22:08:20Z")
I hate my workout for the most part, but I hate not going to the gym more. I usually feel pretty good when I’m done.
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### Author:  [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2009, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-exercise-feel-physically-good-to-you/487283/8 "2009-02-24T22:08:55Z")
> [@pbbth](#):
>
> No, working out is unpleasant for me. I just end up sore with no sort of endorphin rush to compensate. Worse yet is that exercise makes me HUNGRY. I want to eat everything that ever was food after a hard work out, which kind of goes against the whole point of the exercise. I’ve learned that I need to build the physical activity into my day so that I can focus on the fact that I am walking to work or wandering a museum or whatever and not focus on the fact that exercise sucks donkey balls.
well if you are going to eat then after a work out is a good time for it, your body is in full metabolic burn mode so just about everything you put in your face at this point is going to get burned up instead of stored.
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### Author:  [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2009, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-exercise-feel-physically-good-to-you/487283/9 "2009-02-24T22:21:00Z")
After taking a nice bike ride I’d sit on the porch, cool off, have a gatorade, watch my girls run around, watch the trees rustle and bend in the wind, and bask in Ain’t Life Grand.
The day after running the last time I tried, I felt like every muscle was being torn from it’s mooring. Of course I ran too far but man that sucked! I kind of had fun doing it, though.
Even a good little walk will make me feel better.
Haven’t tried the gym, although I ought to. It’s expensive and I tend to not be disciplined. Plus my lower back is a disaster area. Have I made enough excuses? 😃
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### Author:  [@Furious\_Marmot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Furious_Marmot)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2009, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-exercise-feel-physically-good-to-you/487283/10 "2009-02-24T22:37:17Z")
Definitely never experienced an exercise high. Hate, hate, hate how exercise feels. Blood pounding in ears, dry mouth, burning in chest, and stupifying boredom. Even when I had been excercising daily for the better part of a year, it was like standing in line at the DMV with an piano on my torso. I haven’t really been doing any (to my great detriment) for several months mostly because my distaste for it has outweighed my vanity and fear of untimely death.
People who say that excercise clears their head or gives them time to think confuse me. All it makes me think of is how much it sucks and how many minutes are left. Can’t you think while doing something non-painful?
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### Author:  [@Contrary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrary)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2009, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-exercise-feel-physically-good-to-you/487283/11 "2009-02-24T22:47:54Z")
Love it, even when it hurts. I feel virtuous and I love the effect on my body. I’m fit, have good muscles that show appropriately and best of all I’m doing good things for me. I’m one who does think differently when I’m running or whatever, it’s not that I think more, just differently. And I like that too.
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### Author:  [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2009, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-exercise-feel-physically-good-to-you/487283/12 "2009-02-24T22:48:52Z")
Getting back into my routine hurts for the first 2 weeks, but then it gradually feels ok, a month or two later and it starts to feel good. I’ve never get ‘runners highs’ or anything, but I’m positive all in all I stay in a better mood day long.
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### Author:  [@badbadrubberpiggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/badbadrubberpiggy)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2009, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-exercise-feel-physically-good-to-you/487283/13 "2009-02-24T22:54:11Z")
A bit of both, really.
Yes, it can be unpleasant sometimes, when I’m pushing myself really hard and my heart is really pounding, but it also feels good that I _can_ push myself and work that hard. I wouldn’t describe it as “painful” though. Painful makes me think of getting injured. Muscle soreness after a really hard workout is a different story, that’s OK if it’s not extreme. I like being able to feel that I got a really great workout.
It also makes me generally happier and gives me more energy, and I sleep better.
Overall, it makes me feel strong, both during and after.
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### Author:  [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2009, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-exercise-feel-physically-good-to-you/487283/14 "2009-02-24T22:55:12Z")
Motivation is very illusive for me if I **don’t** enjoy my work out, therefore I strive to find stuff that’s fun. Mountain biking works pretty well, I combine my dopamine as well as my aerobic needs.
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### Author:  [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2009, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-exercise-feel-physically-good-to-you/487283/15 "2009-02-24T22:58:37Z")
I used to be avoid exercise like the plague, now I exercise moderately often (intensively a few hours per week, plus a lot of walking). It still doesn’t feel good to me while I do it but the difference is that I have adjusted my attitude: being exhausted, dead tired and with sore muscles is an achievement to me nowadays (and I treasure the list which shows me 1027th out of 1046 in last year’s local 7.5 km race).
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### Author:  [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2009, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-exercise-feel-physically-good-to-you/487283/16 "2009-02-24T23:01:40Z")
I’m always glad that I did it (cardio, yoga, whatever), but that’s partly the masochist in me, and partly because I feel like it’s cancelled out some of my past and future lifestyle sins. I do feel like I’m missing out on the ‘endorphin rush’ I’ve heard so much about, no matter how hard I push myself. Or maybe it just pales in comparison to other types of highs.
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### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2009, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-exercise-feel-physically-good-to-you/487283/17 "2009-02-24T23:05:09Z")
Once I get my second wind, cardio feels okay. I think the good feeling’s more mental than physical; I don’t get any sort of “high,” but I feel good about myself.
The thing about exercise is that it doesn’t feel fantastic when you’re doing it, but if you do it regularly and then stop, you feel like shit.
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2009, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-exercise-feel-physically-good-to-you/487283/18 "2009-02-24T23:07:50Z")
It feels sort of neutral to me. I don’t mind it, but I don’t get high off it either. I do feel a lot more energetic when I’m done. And I do enjoy the mostly unjustified feeling of machismo when I lift.
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### Author:  [@EmAnJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmAnJ)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2009, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-exercise-feel-physically-good-to-you/487283/19 "2009-02-24T23:09:09Z")
I love exercising. I love sweating. I love it when I’m done working out and I have sweat running down my face and a sheen on my arms and legs. If I could, I’d be at the gym for a few hours a day.
The only time it ever hurts is if I push way too hard and my lungs hurt. The muscle soreness after I work out lets me know I worked hard, so I enjoy it.
I’m a girl, btw, and I think people who push themselves hard physically are sexy.
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2009, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-exercise-feel-physically-good-to-you/487283/20 "2009-02-24T23:13:02Z")
I always feel good exercising, even if it’s the ‘hurts so good’ variety. I also feel both good and virtuous after having exercised.
So why is it so damn hard to keep doing it? Most anything else that makes me feel good, I can’t stop doing…
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