Gosh, this OP is really making me struggle. I love talking about working out, but how I feel after working out really depends on a whole lot of factors: how hard I pushed myself (really this more than any other factor), what time of the day I do it, what type of exercising I did, what the temperature was like, how healthy I am, what I’ve eaten beforehand, how much sleep I’ve gotten, how long it’s been since my last workout, how long it’s been since I’ve taken a day off from working out … that’s all I can think of right now.
The only thing that I really feel almost all the time is that I have better circulation afterwards. That’s why I make sure to continue working out when I’m sick – I’ve talked to people who stop working out when they get sick, but nothing gives me a temporary reprieve from feeling sick like some moderate exercise.
A workout instructor and maybe a little therapy. Try self therapy first and if it doesn’t work go to a therapist. It’ll really help with the negative associations. And if you can afford a one-on-one fitness instructor it could really help with technique and how to use the machines etc. Even if you only get them for a few hours you’ll at least know the techniques. Take things slow and steady, don’t make big jumps from not doing anything to a one hour aerobic workout.
Work out your max heart rate: 205.8 − (0.685 × age)
Unless you can go to a centre to get it tested this is a good formula to go by.
Work at your target heart rate which is 65-85% of the max heart rate.
I hear you, Maggie. I’m clumsy too. So clumsy I make drunk people look like Olympic gymnasts. It’s extremely annoying hearing “Don’t be ashamed!” from the peanut gallery, especially when they aren’t the ones falling all over the place in every single class they take. It’s easy for people to poo-poo an emotion when they never experience the conditions that provoke it.
I consider myself a strong person. I usually don’t give a shit about what people think. But I feel “exercise embarrassment” quite frequently. It has absolutely nothing to do with being out of shape, because I’m not. But rather the very realistic fear of being “wrong” in front of others. You aren’t alone.
These three and bloated. The last isn’t my imagination, I’ve measured my waist before and after an hour long workout and there’s about 1" difference. I think I drink too much water…so I don’t die. Luckily it doesn’t last very long.
You know, there’s nothing requiring you to give your WAG. You could have waited for someone who has experienced “exercise shame” to chime in before giving your opinion, at least.
The topic of exercise is already touchy for people. For some people, exercise is just something to do. For others, it has a lot of emotional baggage going back to childhood. If you don’t understand this, that’s fine. But the polite thing to do is to set back and listen, rather than attribute motives to people (sloth? really?) that may not even apply.
Like I said, it depends more on what you eat than how much of it there is. I weigh about 17 kg less than I did when I was fat. I don’t count calories aside from very occasional spot-checks, more out of curiosity than anything. I typically take in more calories now than I logged when I measured and logged everything for about a week and a half before starting my “diet” a few years ago, and I have for years now.
What’s most different is what I eat: whole foods, few grains, lots of lean animal protein, lots of vegetables, some fruit and nuts. Fat makes up about 50% of my calories most days, which according to most people is going to make me fat, diabetic, and drop dead from a heart attack next week. Instead, I’ve got low body fat, pristine A1c, and close to textbook blood lipids.
I exercise, but I don’t do the type of exercise that everyone thinks will make you lose weight. I don’t spend 45–60 minutes with my heart rate in the “fat burning zone.” Some of my workouts are literally 10 minutes long. That “calories in, calories out” belief is exactly what I think leads to the kind of misery we’re seeing in this thread, where people suffer through that time and even starve themselves, but still don’t see the kind of results they want.
Just about any kind of exercise will make you healthier even if you don’t lose weight from it. But isn’t it so much better to actually enjoy the time you spend being active than to suffer through an hour of hell a few days a week? That’s what I’m trying to say here.
If I were embarrassed or ashamed, I think I’d find a different way to do things. Maybe you’d like it better if you didn’t do group classes. Maybe you can take lessons with other people who are beginners to a skill, so that everyone starts out not knowing what the hell is going on.
Personally, the last time I did anything that could be considered a group class was probably when I started learning how to rock climb in college, and that was with a few other individuals who peeled off the holds about as often as I did. I am a bit of a jock and at first I still sucked more than some of the girls who had never done anything remotely like climbing before.
I usually work out in a small local gym, sometimes at home doing calisthenics, sometimes running around the neighborhood, or sometimes doing stuff in the park. I’m not a very social person in some ways and working out with groups bigger than a handful of people would probably turn me off. The difference is, I don’t force myself to participate in a situation I know I won’t like. Why do you?
My first year of yoga, I did hate it. I was the person who fell in every class and left with tears of embarrassment in my eyes.
I kept at it because people kept encouraging to stick with it. And as my depressive haze faded, I saw that even though my feelings of embarrassment were understandable, that I WAS gradually improving. It wasn’t as bad as it seemed.
And then one day the teacher singled me out to demonstrate a standing pose that would have been impossible for me to do a year ago. It was the first time I had ever been called on in class. It was like the cheesy ending of a cheesy 80s movie. I have never experienced that kind of pride from physical activity before.
If I let negative feelings dictate my behavior, I wouldn’t do anything. I don’t like lots of activities/chores and yet I do them because they get me the things I want. The key with my yoga fight was not swallowing the pain and shaming myself into not feeling it, but rather accepting the pain as a price for the good stuff that I get out of it. Like better posture, concentration, and muscle tone. And compassion. It also helps that I don’t feel anything but good emotions when I walk. Yoga is brocolli. Walking is chocolate cake. If life was nothing but chocolate cake, it wouldn’t be as special.
Telling someone they shouldn’t feel something doesn’t work. Feelings have a habit of always following someone no matter what they are doing. Rather than fighting the feelings, a person should find something that generates enough positive ones that the negative ones don’t overshadow everything.
How do you get better at something except through hard work? I didn’t like doing 10,000+ advance-advance-lunge-recover-parry-retreat-retreats over 6 weeks - I kept tripping and stumbling and losing my balance, and sometimes being so tired I would drop my sword. But by God my footwork is really good now, and I’m praised frequently by my weapons master for keeping good footwork even in the hardest combat. [sub]Which doesn’t necessarily mean I win more, but I lose with more poise.[/sub]
I feel the “good tired” esp when I’ve run long enough to get the jelly legs. I walk in the mornings with a friend that isn’t ready to do more than that, so when I walk (approx 2 miles at a medium to slow pace) I do get some exercise but I feel somewhat frustrated, like exercise blue balls. I go to the gym around mid morning and get it out of my system and end up feeling tired and happy and somewhat superior to the people going through the Taco Bell drive through that is situated near one of the exits of my gym (hey, I didn’t say it was a nice thought, but it is honest). My kids have been going with me so we have done small running sections so I do not overtire them. I am thinking of going to a yoga class tonight but I do not do yoga because of some of the reasons stated - I can run but if I tried bending over I may snap in half. I am not flexible or bendy or any of those other fun words and I am a little embarrassed to start. However, the people at spin class were very accommodating from the very first class so I don’t think anyone would make fun of me. I like the feeling of “Whew that was awesome!” and am afraid of leaving with the frustrated feeling.
The feelings are very mixed for me. The one that always happens is that I have ticked off something on my to-do list. So, I feel good that I have accomplished something.
However, the other feelings vary with the type of exercise:
Group class: dizzy, confused and giddy. I have very little coordination so I am always going the wrong way or doing the wrong thing. Which makes me laugh. Needless to say, I tend not to do these anymore.
Running:
Walking (fast, cardio heart rate): good but jelly legged. I had better not try to do anything that requires any kind of coordination after a heavy walking workout.
Weight training: My absolute favourite kind of exercise. I am a girl but I think I would fit in better with the guys on this one. I work each muscle individually and get to know it and really feel it. I can’t think about work or home I can only focus on the exercise I am doing and the form and getting out that …one…last…rep (without slamming the weights of course). It also makes my achy shoulder not ache and my annoying ankle less annoying. (And I can dead lift my 7-year-old again.) It makes me feel strong and powerful and a little like an Amazon. After a good session, I can take on the world!
the only times i feel great as a result from exercise is a) while playing a sport, or b) many hours afterwards when i can reflect on my accomplishments. all of the other times range from “meh…” to “i hate life”
when i run alone or swim laps, it feels like a chore.
i can’t stand just doing a quick workout - it makes me feel like i’m half-assing it, so i frequently go until exhaustion. if i’m in a time crunch, i’d crank the speed up on the treadmill, swim with extra fervor, or play at a batshit-insane intensity.
afterwards though, regardless of exercise, i feel dog ass tired, often with cramps, and barely have the energy to shower before collapsing on a couch or bed.
I never said you shouldn’t work hard. I think I said the opposite, in fact, that you should find something that makes exercise enjoyable so that you’ll continue to do it instead of feeling like crap every time and probably quitting because it’s so unpleasant. I also pointed out that a learning situation is a perfect way to get rid of the feeling that you’re the only awkward person because in a group of beginners basically everyone is going to suck at it. So, Una Persson, you kind of made my case for me.
One of the reasons I don’t do aerobics classes is because, despite being a decent martial artist and gymnast, I look like a dancing bear when I do the kinds of things they do in those classes. And especially since I’m a guy, I don’t like looking awkward in front of a group of women. If I were determined to be able to do aerobics classes with a group of people, I might push myself to join the class, but if the social aspect wasn’t what I was targeting I would find something else to do that does basically the same things, but in a more private or less stressful setting.
The problem I saw was that people were forcing themselves into situations that mixed social aspects into physical activities. That obviously can color their feelings toward performing physical skills. If you’re working on dealing with uncomfortable social situations, that’s fine, but if you were interested in fitness or actually learning how to do something, that added anxiety isn’t going to help, and might make you stop before you accomplish what you started out trying to do. That doesn’t benefit you at all.
And how should I have stated this differently?