Workout induced moods

Now, anyone have a formula for "pushing past the pain?" I find I can do this more than when I was a kid - but I'm still inconsistent with being able to do this. (You know, push through the pain and then you feel okay. . .) Depending upon the pain level, I'll resort to swimming some 50's and 100's with some rest to regenerate my ATP supplies when things get ugly. If its minor discomfort I'll just push on through but sometimes you have to know when to say when. When my arms are ready to fall off and my heart rate is through the roof, pushing on is probably not in my best interest.

Depending upon the pain level, I'll resort to swimming some 50's and 100's with some rest to regenerate my ATP supplies when things get ugly. If its minor discomfort I'll just push on through but sometimes you have to know when to say when. When my arms are ready to fall off and my heart rate is through the roof, pushing on is probably not in my best interest. I push on through pretty much anything but cramps...I hate cramps. then again I'm training solo...maybe a coach would make me cry...

I was doing some 50 sprints with minimal rest the other night and after 8 of them I just could not make it happen anymore. I was spent. Perhaps if somebody has the proverbial gun to my head I could have done it but short of that...it's time to enjoy the company of the gutter.

Come to think of it, maybe it wasn't the kick sets as much as the way I was totally useless on the following set even though I was trying very hard. Maybe I was trying too hard. The coach asked us to do 100s on 2min at best time + 10s and I could barely manage best time + 20s. Grrr. And then he told us to do 200 kick for warmdown... I know my kick needs work but that was just cruel.

I almost always feel better after workouts(though this kicking only stuff is getting old.) Like Fort I am absolute Ogre when I don't swim.Sometimes my wife says"don't you need to go workout".

Morning sprint sets are stressfull. Sometimes my stress begins at night time and I can not sleep enough (Did I say I'm in love with swimming before?). If I can do my sets within target, I'm happy, if not, a bit upset but motivated. I like drill sets more especially in the week-ends. I have more time, I enjoy my swim. When my right shoulder is silent in the stretching part, I am very happy, but it clicks most of the time. When there is a fast swimmer in the next lane, I am faster, if the swimmer is female I am much faster (I don't know why) :woot: . I hate kick sets anyway.

when i miss a workout....i'm miserable

Do you find that certain types of workouts put you in certain types of moods? Absolutely. Low level LSD swims, stopping before exhaustion, have a boosting effect on my humor. I love every one, only see the right side of things, and feel invincible. For different reasons, swims in bad pools where ropes weren't tightened enough, with 10 swimmers per lane, makes me feel as if I wanted to drown five of them, or seriously injure the lazy lifeguard that didn't tighten the ropes enough.

This past week I've been exhausted: all tax, all the time. A couple of evenings I easily could have gone to bed early, but I went to the pool instead because I have yet to leave the pool feeling anything but good about myself. As I swam, I forgot about the rest of the world. When I came home, I was worn out but in a good way...not an "I've had enough of today" way.

At the risk of boring y'all, I did an article on antidepressants--especially the new SNRIs (serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors) a couple years back, and the sidebar for the main feature was on so-called hippocampal neurogenesis--i.e., the idea that new neurons can be stimulated to regrow in a key part of the brain called the hippocampus (greek for seahorse, which this structure allegedly resembles.) These drugs can trigger this regrowth, but exercise also does a fine job. This excerpt is a wee bit dated, but those of you interested in brain physiology might find it interesting to consider the next time you're swimming laps that your efforts are conceivably beefing up your brain simultaneously, offering at least some inoculation to depression: --------------------------------------- ...it now appears that by effectively boosting either of these two key neurotransmitters, antidepressants can stimulate neurogenesis, which, in turn, results in a reduction in anxious behavior. Already, other researchers are planning to study drugs like Cymbalta and Effexor that effect both serotonin and norepinephrine to see if the double-whammy approach indeed works even better. Though Duman says it's still too early to say for sure that the mystery about antidepressant lag time has been definitively solved, the "neurogenesis hypothesis" is generating tremendous excitement--and hope for novel interventions--among researchers. Hen , for his part, has reportedly started a company to look for new drugs that specifically promote neurogenesis. The hope, at least, is that by bypassing a more systemic approach, side effects like impaired sexual performance might become a thing of the past. "We used to consider the brain as a hard wire computer kind of deal, but it's really a very adaptive and plastic organ," says Duman. "Even in someone who has been severely stressed, hippocampal atrophy might prove reversible with the correct treatment." SNRI drugs like Cymbalta, for instance, which promote neurogenesis through both the serotonin and norepinephrine systems, may prove especially effective. But it turns out a simple drug-free technique can do an excellent job, as well: exercise. "Give a mouse a running wheel, and they will run for 8 or 10 miles a night," says Duman. "Over a course of a few weeks, they'll also enjoy a doubling in the rates of neurogenesis." In coming years, researchers will surely gain ever more sophisticated insights into the causes--and remedies--for mood disorders. Until then, a depressed guy's best option seems clear: take medicine if you need it but don't forget to head to the gym. It's the best way to build a healthy body and a healthy brain.