Me, I noticed that every time I have an intense session, afterwards my breathing seems…freer, and I have more energy weirdly enough. Not enough to claim a sort of “runner’s high” (tho I ride a stationary bike), but I do seem to feel better. You?
Virtuous.
Tired. Sweaty. Irritated.
I feel “freer” too, but other “wellness experts” have told me I’ve just absorbed a bunch of free radicals and have thereby only fucked myself up.
“wellness.” seems everyone is an expert. Just like they are regarding sex, so it stands to reason everyone’s a hypocrite on wellness also.
I feel good but totally depleted and exhausted. I often find myself taking a quick, 20-30 minute nap after I’ve come home and showered (if I haven’t showered at the gym).
Tired, cranky, ashamed.
When I was trying to get in shape, this is how I felt after exercise. As I got more used to it, I started feeling virtuous. Once I became really fit, I’d feel energetic and good after exercise.
Now I’m back to feeling just sweaty and irritated on those rare occasions that I really exercise. And mad at myself for getting back to Square One.
Great…I feel radient and energetic. And because time at the gym tends to pass slowly, I feel like I got a little bit of extra time in my day.
I feel confident, optimistic, generous, happy, responsible. I have less energy, but in a good way - before I exercise I’m too hyper to sit down and get some work done, but not afterwards.
During this heat wave, however, I’ve noticed that jogging while it’s 90 degrees outside saps too much of my energy and I don’t experience the usual runner’s high.
Like utter crap. Exhausted, sore, teary, twitchy (my muscles, that is) and ravenous.
Tired and rejuvenated at the same time? However that works.
You nailed it exactly.
This, although I’ll add “sore”.
It is an effort and I usually feel very fatigued at the end.
Good tired.
After, literally, decades of exercise I’ve finally discovered heart rate monitors and it’s transformed every thing for me: Changed my mind set and … pretty much everything.
Once you understand your zones and start to get to know your body it becomes a journey of discovery - what you can do now, what you might reasonably aspire to, when to push it, when to cruise a little … and most importantly what you’re actually achieving by doing this thing. In measurements. Relative to you personally. Marvellous!
It depends. I suffer from some chronic pain which makes exercise a chore many times. However, about 1/3 of the time I am completely pain-free during exercise, and I can work out hard for two hours until I can hardly walk straight, and I love it.
My exercise is all martial arts, so another factor about how I enjoy it is how well I do in my fights. If I manage to kick ass with my sword or do some spectacular move, I can feel like the Queen of the World. One night about 2 months ago I beat every opponent I fought, and fought the weapons master to close out the night and beat him with authority, with everything clicking, darting in and out and traversing around and sending my rapier THUD! into his chest, WOP! cutting to the flank, CLANG-SCHWISH-THUMP! parry prime and moulinet to the head, imagine giant Batman-font there…I felt like I was walking on air.
Relaxed. Then the next day more energetic.
I don’t get the comments that say “ashamed.”
The only time I can feel good. When I’m focused, “in the zone”, I think about nothing else. Most of the time I feel a sense of relaxation, but with sparring or fighting I feel intense and excited. Sometimes when there is an aim I’m trying to achieve I feel very elevated when I’ve achieved it. Like when I finish a new kung fu form, or when I manage to do a new move in ice skating.
It’s also painful, exhausting and depleting. But there’s good pain and bad pain. It’s all worth it in the end. Then I go back to my normal life, when I’m not exercising, and am unhappy again. When I go for a long time without exercising it has a negative effect on my mood, I have a shorter temper, and am moodier and less willing to socialise. In short I become not a very nice person to be around.
I don’t exercise to exhaustion so I usually feel pretty good afterwards. I’d say more relaxed than tired. I think I feel worse when I don’t exercise for some reason or another, knowing that I’d probably feel better afterwards.