How many have Endorphin highs?
I have had only 2 while swimming in 20 years, but nearly a dozen while in the weight room.
It seems to be triggered by two things, using a carbo sports drink, and major stress to the body.
My best swimming high was a nearly 6000 yard workout, outdoors in beautiful sun. At the end of the workout was a huge butterfly set, I felt like I was a dolphin, able to nearly fly over the waters surface. Allmost out of body experience.
In the weight room, I used to drink a Carbo pump drink before working out. If I stressed my legs just right, say 450 pounds on the toe lifts, I would get a endorphin high that would last 2 hours or more.:D :D :D :D :D
When in that high, I could do increadible things, leg press over a thousand pounds, stuff like that! And I would still feel the high after the workout. Way cool.
Since I don't take drugs, this is as good as it gets for me.
I get an endorphin high when we do a set of 100s (only freestyle) on a tight interval. I'm really tired when we finish, but have that wonderful feeling of doing something really good that I wasn't positive I could do. It's sets like 10 x 100 where I get less than 5 sec rest by the time we get to #7 or 8. Or 15 x 100 where we did 5 x 100, 4 x 100, 3 x 100, 2 x 100, 1 x 100 with the interval dropping 5 sections for each set. No stopping between sets, and the last one is just about all out. Interestingly, I never feel that good on breaststroke sets and rarely on backstroke. It's only on 100s, not a set of 50s or a set of 200s.
Betsy Durrant
I don't know about a "high" while exercising, but I know how crappy I feel if I haven't exercised for a few days.
My high school coaches told the team that we would suffer from endorphin withdrawal, if we skipped any practices. ;)
I have my endophin high during open water competition, but only afte 1/2h of race.
I feel harms realy light and something like a lough on my face.
I feel endorphing hig wile i run but not during running competition, only during training.
Last night I did some anaerobic sprint sets. Doing them felt "oh so bad" but afterwards it felt "oh so goooood!" I don't know that I've ever felt as good as Wayne talked about, but sometimes... oh yeah, sometimes...
It must have been a high of some kind... Yesterday I swam in a 1.15 mile Lake Swim Marathon event. It was my 6th year in a row and, admittingly, they changed the course this year but 1.15 miles is still 1.15 miles. Anyway, I dropped my best time in this event by 40 seconds. I've been training less than usual, only about 35k yds/mth versus 60k normally, but still had the best time ever. Anyway, change in course, high, whatever it was I think I like it.
After 35+ years of running/racewalking/swimming, I pretty much get endorphin highs everytime I workout hard - esp. when doing distance work. Cold water also triggers it. I did the Boston Light Swim last weekend (8+ miles with the water temp in the 62-65 degree range) and was grinning like a loon the entire way home.
On the other hand, during the 4-6 week recovery period each year that I train only lightly/sporadically, I am positively miserable and a PITA to live with.
-LBJ
