Explain 'addictiveness of excercise' to me.

In My Humble Opinion
1

If such a thing even exists!
I’ve recently re-joined a Gym, and am going quite regularly (every other day unless plans get in the way). I believe my workout is quite ‘worthwhile’. I stay for over an hour and don’t allow too much rest between workouts. And most of the time I’ll repeat to failure (do reps until I physically can’t do another without giving myself a hernia)

But I don’t find it in the least bit ‘addictive’ :dubious:

If I’ve done a particularly intensive set I’ll feel a slightly pleasant restful feeling afterwards, but the lack of ‘addictiveness’ means that every visit to the Gym is a force-myself-to-go-even-though-I’m-not-really-in-the-mood effort.

I have an addictive personality. If I’m going to indulge in something I tend to indulge properly. If I were one of those people who found excercise adictive then I’m sure I’d be some sort of Hercules by now!
Does it exist?
If it does, is it something that some people just have, and other people just don’t?
Or is it something that one can acquire?

2

It’s latent masochism, pure and simple. I don’t have it, either.

3

Beta endorphins rock.

Looking in the mirror and realizing that you have a physique, not just a shape, rocks.

4

Third. An effort almost every time.

Maybe you have to start early?

My one friend who gets visibly upset when he can’t make it to the gym started in competitive weightlifting before the age of ten. It’s so much a part of his bonding with his dad, etc. that it’s a sort of default mechanism for any time he encounters stress or needs something familiar and comforting. His prescription to just about any woe in life is “you need to get to the gym.”

I don’t get it.

5

I had never gotten the concept of wanting or even needing to exercise until I started yoga. Weights, running - a variety of strength and aerobic stuff - I got nuthin’.

With yoga, there is a clear benefit that I can feel -

  • yeah, you get the sore muscles associated with working out - check
  • but you also get some benefits that are more like meditation - you know, clearer head and perspective
  • and also, you feel like your mind-body connection is more…explicit? Like your mind is more fully occupying your body - sorry, that sounds cheesy. But you definitely are more aware of what your body can and can’t do.

Those latter two are different from and more than I ever got from other forms of exercise. And they are so clearly helpful to me in the rest of my life - calming me down for work or stressful personal situations, for instance - that I find myself knowing exactly how many days its been since I last did yoga.

If you can find something that helps you in that way - doesn’t have to be yoga - then you will find you stay with exercising. I don’t force myself at all - I just have found that I want to do it regularly as part of my life, so I do…

6

I get addicted to exercise. Unfortunately, it often leads to me injuring myself, which leads to me not being able to exercise, which leads to losing the addiction and getting out of shape again. But for the last few months I’ve been able to keep from overdoing it and I’m getting in really good shape. I exercise every night and feel an absolute need to do it in the morning when I wake up, too. Combined with the fact that I’ve finally managed to start eating less, I’ve lost 20 pounds and I have more muscle than I have ever had before.

7

I used to be totally addicted to exercise - I loved the way I felt while I was doing it and after. Now I like the way I feel after mostly, but motivation to get started is tough. The measurable health benefits help, though.

Also, now that I’m so far into my pregnancy, it’s the only thing that helps me sleep well. If I do it right (not so much I’m twitchy and achy, but not so little I’m not pleasantly tired), I sleep through most Braxton-Hicks contractions and night sweats and don’t wake up quite so much when I have to roll over, which can take a remarkable amount of effort when you’ve got a beach ball attached to your stomach. It also keeps swelling and heartburn down.

Even though the effort it takes to drag myself to the treadmill every night absolutely sucks, what used to be a drug has now become a necessary evil.

8

I haven’t been able to work out due to surgery for a torn rotator cuff.

Working for me was pure bliss, the sense of deep calm and a complete elimination of all anxiety…I can’t wait to go back.

Something about contracting muscles as hard as you can through a range of motion is just nirvana. I’ve often though that if they could get heroin addicts into the gym, they’d trade in their heroin for working out. Maybe I’m wrong.

I also used to do a yoga/pilates thing called centergy, that was fun too in a different way.

Aerobic exercise is good too but I don’t usually get the same high as from weight training.

9

I get the high only when doing hard cardiovascular exercise, not during weights.

For me, it’s more of a ‘how much can I improve’; setting goals, reaching them, surpassing them. I often get the same feeling when I accomplish something big.

10

The addictiveness came from seeing the changes to my body. I was never really overweight but watching all the soft parts on my body turn into toned muscle was awesome. I lost 3 or 4 pants sizes and 2 shirt sizes and my new clothes fit amazingly. Had a completely flat stomach, definition on my arms and back, etc. Finally felt like I looked good in tank and tube tops and shorts. I’ve had multiple setbacks since I achieved my ‘best body ever’ but my pants still fit. I recently started going back and I really want to get that level of fitness back. The self confidence I had was amazing.

11

It’s also about cardio to me. It’s definitely not masochism–yeah, it’s work to make yourself do it but afterwards I feel like I’m on such a huge high. It’s awesome. It’s not so much an addiction, also, as it is I feel weird if I haven’t gone. I don’t go for all that long (usually a half hour a day 4-5 times a week) but if I skip too many days I’ll start to feel all wonky and weird. Hard to explain. Things are just…off.

12

Same here: cardio, not so much an addiction as it is feeling “off” without exercise, and just feeling better both physically and mentally.

I’ve also gotten “runner’s high” (tho, I’m a swimmer) during a really good workout and its aftermath. But that, again, is more an awesome feeling of wellbeing, rather than an actual addiction. More like afterglow, really.

13

So do most of you only get the high afterwards?

Or do you get it during?

Afterwards my muscles just feel ‘normal’ and that makes me wonder if I’ve done enough.

Like others have said I’ll only feel a good sense of well-being after intensive cardio. But I haven’t done intensive cardio for many many years.

14

Both for me, depending on how hard I am working and what I am doing.

I really feel it when I get my ‘second wind’, which usually comes about 10 minute in to a run or cycle. Once I pass that, it’s as if everything is in alignment - my breathing is timed to my pace, and my pace is perfect in that I don’t feel like I need to go any faster or slower. I am just completely aligned. It’s hard to describe. I don’t feel like I am really working at that point, my mind clears, I can focus on what my body is feeling rather then how much I don’t want to be there, or how much it sucks, because it doesn’t suck any more. It’s just perfect.

After most workouts, I feel a sense of accomplishment mostly, and sometimes a big surge in energy and a feeling of wanting to get things done. I fine if I exercise first thing in the morning, I get more accomplished during the day. I can just go, go, go.

15

I think addictive is the wrong term. I’ve been going to the gym for decades regularly and I don’t find it addictive, I would call it habit forming. It’s not like a feeling you *need *a cigarette or need a cup of coffee.

It’s more like you feel comfortable performing the routine and if you don’t something seems off.

Kind of like driving to work the same route every day. Or always going grocery shopping on Fridays. If you go Thursdays to the grocers, it seems off.

Like if I don’t go to the gym for a week, if I’m on vacation, I feel like something is missing, but I don’t feel like I"m going through withdrawl.

16

I generally feel that way but on occasion, I’ll definitely find myself thinking, “Wow, I wish I’d gone.” Esp. if it’s been a while.

17

I don’t feel good if I don’t get some exercise every day. But I wouldn’t call that an addiction, I’d call that normal. Human bodies need to work to stay in working order.

A young woman I know who has been struggling with anorexia and bulimia also has problems with exercise–once she starts, she has a hard time stopping. So part of her progress right now is not exercising. That’s the sort of thing that I consider an addiction to exercise–she does it to the point of self-destruction.

18

Echoing those who cite the lift they get from cardio, not so much from weight training. I mean, I feel good after weight training, but it’s the feeling I get from completing a task that needs to be done, like vacuuming. After intense cardio, though, especially when I’ve been doing it regularly and am in decent shape, I feel great. And conversely, when I’m injured and can’t play (like right now, with a sprained and very swollen finger) I just feel a bit…off.

Of course, when you first start doing heavy cardio, all you’re going to feel afterward is wiped out. But keep at it, it gets a lot better.

19

I had to take a couple of weeks off cardio, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and lower body weights because of a hip injury. It turns out that if I don’t do exercise for even a couple of days, I start thinking about it nonstop.

I suppose you could make an analogy to a drug user gradually needing bigger and bigger hits to keep functioning properly - I started with couch to 5k, then started a crappy weights program and gradually improved it. Then I developed a tolerance for that and added intensive cardio once a week, then twice a week. Then that started to not be challenging, so I started doing BJJ three times a week, and now 3x weights, 2x cardio and 3x BJJ is what I need to feel “normal”.

I get a “high” from intense cardio and BJJ, and a deep sense of satisfaction from weight training (I hit 70% BW on my top bench set the other day and could not stop smiling!)

Initially I had to drag myself to the gym, and I only really got through that period because I had a couple of gym buddies to motivate me. But gradually as I got used to more activity, and I could see the physical changes, my motivation changed from negative (don’t want to disappoint my husband by bailing out, or if I skip this session it’ll be more difficult next time) to positive (I’m getting really strong, looking really good), then it became habit, and then it just became something I did because otherwise my body would start craving exercise.

20

Over my life, I’ve done competitive swimming, aerobics, circuit training and running. I was always a “tomboy” and active and fairly good at sports, I say this so you’ll know I’m not exercise averse.

Never once, not ever, EVER, did I get anything close to resembling a “runner’s high” or “workout bliss”. Never. It would have made things much easier if I had.

Swimming was compulsory in my family as a child–I got out of the water when I was 14 and never got back in (I did like being able to do the strokes well and getting the ribbons. I was usually a second place gal).

Aerobics was to get back my shape after babies. While I can say it felt good to tone a bit, I never looked forward to class because of the workout I got. (it was a class mostly of new moms and we all needed the social outlet).

Circuit training was a joke and I hated it. Bored out of my mind, although some of the machines were neat. I also had some kind of exer-trainer, quasi-bike thing (can’t remember the name of it offhand) that I used to do while I watched TV. More boring, if possible.

Running was something I felt compelled to do–twice now as an adult. Once in 2001 (I was running when the twin towers were hit) and the again in 2008 when my daughter went to college. The first foray into running had me exhausted and taking naps the days I ran–believe me, I wasn’t overdoing by most standards: I was trying to run about 2 miles. I am not morbidly obese (not even close, just slightly overweight) and have always been athletic. Turns out my MCV (a measure of how large the red blood cells are) was dangerously LOW, and I needed iron. No wonder I was so tired! But I quit because I went back to work and I could either work 12 hours on my feet, moving morbidly obese pts (I’m an RN) or run, but not both.
The second attempt at running was last fall and I gave it up for no good reason except that I didn’t really have time/ambition. Now I work 2 jobs and have no time. (please don’t tell me I have time. It’s not the actual exercise, it’s the showering, the hairwashing, the hairdrying etc that eats up time. I’m not going to cut my hair short-short just to run).

I’m sorry, I seemed to have strayed from the question. I DO feel better when I take walks and they help my mental outlook: the mind/body benefit to exercise is well known, but for me no “high”. I would like to find something I can do at home, but I don’t expect to feel some great endorphin release from it (I wish I did!).

I did try one yoga class at the local racquet club and I loved it. Unfortunately I cannot afford the racquet club so I’m considering getting a DVD. If anyone has any suggestions, I’d love to hear them. I do know that when I was running, I couldn’t just sit anymore–plane trips were agony. But I never looked forward to the run.
maybe all this varies from person to person? I am reading some of these posts in amazement. I get that not everyone wants to do the same kind of activity etc, but perhaps we are all wired to respond to exercise differently as well (meaning that there are various responses to exercise within the range of normal for humans). Maybe this has something to do with obesity as well? Just idle musings.