Category: All

By Ben Thomas

Earlier this month, researchers discovered that at least part of the euphoria that comes after a strenuous workout — runner’s high — is due to endocannabinoids, the body’s self-produced counterparts to some of marijuana’s mood-enhancing chemicals. The finding overturned decades of conventional wisdom claiming that natural highs come from endorphins, the chemicals that became famous in the 1980s for their euphoric effects.

While endorphins seem to help numb our muscles during a workout, their molecules are too large to cross the blood-brain barrier and trigger a “high” like endocannabinoids can. Although endocannabinoids may deserve more credit for rewarding your workout, media coverage around the discovery tended to blow the findings a bit out of proportion — giving endocannabinoids all the credit.

The study authors’ actual claim was that endocannabinoids in addition to endorphins may play a role in runner’s high. Endocannabinoids, though, are far from the only intoxicating chemicals our bodies produce – and they don’t work alone. The bewildering variety of highs we can give ourselves – and the ways they work together – reveal some intriguing truths about the responses we’ve evolved to soothe our pain and get the good vibes flowing.

Here’s a quick look at the usual suspects. Learn more about Endocannabinoids, Endorphins, Enkephalins, Dopamine and other powerful self-produced chemicals by reading the full article on Discover Magazine’s Blog.

Consistency Is Everything When Training
By Chandra Lynn 

A couple years ago I started tracking my workout using the bodybuilding.com body face app and recently I realized I only had tracked 300 workouts! Of course it doesn’t count all the times taking walks or attending yoga classes but it does show me that I’ve been fairly consistent with my routine and, as a result, I feel like my body has really changed. Because we’re with ourselves every day it’s often hard to know how much our body is changing. That’s why it’s important to create benchmark and track your progress. Some people take photos, measurements for see how their clothes are fitting and what size they’re wearing. Another measurement is just to check in with yourself and see how you feel.

Are you giving yourself credit for all the work that you done?
Are you proud of yourself for the effort in the consistency?
Or do negative thoughts come up about how much more you should be doing?

Regardless of whether you worked out once in a week or seven times a week, consistency in working out is what’s important. It’s a commitment to fitness for health and longevity. Of course there’s motivating factors in terms of how we look at our genes and how other people see us, or even how we see ourselves we look in a mere. But when it really comes down to it health is the number one priority because without it we don’t have anything to give out.

Have you ever felt really unmotivated to go work out and then you push yourself through it and realize how great it’s out afterwards? Remembering how great it out can often be a motivator to go back in and push past the feelings of the motive a fan or anticipation of pain. Of course working out should never actually bring you real physical pain, it’s just that sometimes to really get full benefits of exercise you have to push yourself to your limit in a safe way. And doing that can feel uncomfortable.

For me I have to push myself through H.I.I.T. training. Some people absolutely love to push themselves to their peak heart rate but for me its highly uncomfortable, and I don’t look forward to it. Of course, afterwards, I feel fantastic and super proud of myself for doing it, and I know that it’s the key to my results. So there are times that we have to push past our fear of discomfort and inadequacies in order to be consistent and align with our commitment to our fitness goals.

Have you ever taken a weekend off are gone on vacation and found it really hard to get active again even after a successful run? The key is to just get right back to it and after a couple days you’ll feel like you’re back in swing of things. Don’t put it off anymore because it’ll just make it harder to get back to where you were and move beyond any plateaus. If you put it off, you may find that your thoughts turn negative and you start feeling bad about yourself and feel discouraged. I find that it’s best for me not to go more than two days without an working out but everybody’s different so you have to find the limit for yourself.

I’m going to leave you with a meme that is one of the biggest motivators that I have ever seen. Which old person would you rather be? Now get to work! ; )