Since I started publishing Further a year-and-a-half ago, it’s become clear that exercise is somewhat miraculous. And I don’t mean just in the physical sense.
Exercise enhances your brain in real ways, heightens awareness, and can help you overcome depression. And we know that vigorous, high-intensity exercise provides bigger benefits, faster.
One thing that comes with the territory of a high-intensity workout is discomfort. In fact, people who commit to a lifestyle that includes vigorous exercise learn to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
And this brings yet another valuable benefit. You learn to deal with life in a more well-adjusted way.
Endurance athletes of all kinds train themselves to keep going when it starts to hurt. And research shows that this spills over when encountering life stress — it just doesn’t seem like that big a deal, relatively.
You don’t have to train for an Iron Man to benefit, though. Here’s an excerpt from a Science of Us article on the topic:
- A study published in the British Journal of Health Psychology found that college students who went from not exercising at all to even a modest program (just two to three gym visits per week) reported a decrease in stress, smoking, alcohol and caffeine consumption, an increase in healthy eating and maintenance of household chores, and better spending and study habits.
As an 18-year serial entrepreneur, I’m comfortable in plenty of situations that make others uncomfortable — uncertainty, rapid change, making hard decisions. But when it comes to physical stuff, I’ve admittedly been a big wimp.
I’m starting to change that by embracing — even relishing — the struggle it takes to climb a steep trail. And I started feeling that other stressors in my life were more manageable even before I found this conclusion:
- What you do in the gym (or on the roads, in the ocean, etc.) makes you a better, higher-performing person outside of it.
In short, vigorous exercise goes well beyond physical fitness, as important as that is to your health and longevity. Life fitness may be smarter way to think about it.
How Exercise Shapes You, Far Beyond the Gym
Keep going-
Brian Clark
Further
further: health
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further: wisdom
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Habitual Storytelling
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Simple Motivation
Psychologists tested three common motivational techniques to see which works best. Thinking “I can do better” really can help improve performance, new research finds.
The Simplest Motivational Technique May Also Be The Best
further: sharing
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